Charmed Heritage: 116 My Curse on You: Part Two
by StoryGirl83
Summary: With his problem dealt with Chris can focus on helping his brother, but there's more to this than he originally thought and just reaching his brother is going to prove interesting.
1. Family Relations

My Curse on You ~ Part Two

Chapter One - Family Relations

Fri, Apr 23, 2027

An underworld lair should be one place where someone, be they demon, warlock, or darklighter should feel comfortable. Normally Steve Kessler did. A feeling of being watched had overtaken him several minutes earlier and he couldn't shake it.

Unable to stand it any longer he stood and paced around the room almost crashing into his niece, Brianna McInnis, learning against the wall watching him.

"Hello, Uncle Steve," she greeted him.

"You shouldn't be here," Steve protested, feeling that he had been violated by her presence in his lair.

"Why not?" she asked, unconcerned. "I'm a warlock, aren't I?"

"We both know you're not," he spat back. This was Angel's daughter, but that didn't mean he was delusional. He knew the crowd she hung out with.

Brianna raised an eyebrow, the action almost invisible in the dark. "Do we?"

Steve was silent.

"Do you know how amusing it is to find a witch who can't handle blinking?" she commented, matter of fact.

Steve frowned, not sure where this conversation was going. "Witches have no trouble being blinked somewhere. It's part of their genetics, same as with warlocks."

She shrugged and walked over to his desk. She hopped up and sat on it. "Ever see someone so disoriented after being blinked somewhere that they threw up or passed out?"

"I don't have time for this," he growled.

"No, no, you're far too busy trying to get yourself killed." The last words were growled out. "Did you honestly think someone wouldn't put the pieces together?"

"I suppose you are here to vanquish me," he spat out, disgust in his voice.

"Hardly," she countered. "I'm here to warn you. Devia needs her father. Stay on this course and you will deprive her of that."

"And you're concerned," he scoffed, not believing her for a minute.

"For Devia," she confirmed, not bothering to pretend anything more. "And for what you were," she added without explanation.

"Then, help me."

"And get myself killed for my troubles?" she asked mockingly. "No, thanks. I don't have a death wish."

"Why are you here, Brianna?" He growled out the question.

She jumped off the desk and walked over to him. "This whole thing has me thinking of Uncle Ry."

Steve frowned, suddenly lost in this conversation. "What?"

"Uncle Ry," she repeated. "You know him. He's a member of your coven." When he didn't reply she added, "He calls me his shortcake."

"Was," he corrected bitterly, "a member of my coven."

"Oh." She looked at him, surprise and a little bit of pain evident on her face. "I see. That explains a few things. How?"

"As if you care," he snarled.

"Of course I care," she snapped back. "He's part of my childhood. He was like family."

"Well, he wasn't your family," he reminded her with growing annoyance. "I'm your family and you don't care."

"I care more than you do, Uncle Steve," she informed him. "Don't you remember how I used to follow you around asking you questions about just everything?"

"And returned to your father and tattle," he returned bitterly.

"Tattle?" she chuckled. "I was a little kid sharing my new knowledge with my daddy. I wasn't tattling for goodness sake. You make yourself sound like a small child trying to hide something from his or her parents only to have his older sister or brother run off to tell mom or dad just to get you in trouble. It was never like that."

He scowled and pointed at the exit. "Get out."

"Don't continue this course, Uncle Steve," she repeated her earlier words.

"You don't understand," he protested. "They killed Dam. I promised him. I won't break that promise."

"You're a warlock, Uncle Steve," she reminded him. "Do you really mean to keep a promise made to a vanquished darklighter?"

"He was my friend," he protested, unsure how he ended up on the defensive."

"You're a warlock," she shot back. "Evil doesn't understand friendship. He was a darklighter. It's their job to get you evil and keep you there. They don't care about friendship."

"How is that different than your relationship with those two darklighters you call friends?" he shot back.

"You wouldn't understand," she informed him, adding, "not if you think Dam was your friend."

"And you say you care about what happened to Ry."

"I do," she assured him. "I care about Ry, Shora, Kayla, Eden, even Dathe, but not Dam. I'm an empath, Uncle Steve."

"Who has only had that power recently," he reminded her.

"There's still a sense of people that I've always had," she informed him. "And Dam never cared."

"You don't know what you're talking about," he protested.

"And you don't know what you're throwing away," she informed him with a shrug as she headed toward the exit.

"I can't let you just leave," he announced, grabbing her arm.

She shook him off and glared at him. "Uncle Steve, I'm not going to 'tattle' on you, not now, but if you want to survive, you'd better alter your path. Thanks for the help." Before he could say anything else she blinked out.

Steve frowned. "Help? What help?" he asked the empty air. He ran the conversation through his head, but try as he might, he couldn't think of anything that might have been construed as help. He let out a frustrated yell before he blinked out, heading home.

* * *

Brianna isn't quite ready to turn her uncle in, but now that she knows what he's up to, she's going to keep an eye on him.

After a lot of work in the next chapter Chris arrives at the museum ready with the cure, but he still has to get in.

A/N - For anyone who reads reviews. It was pointed out in them that I duplicated the chapter. That has been fixed, but thanks to those who pointed it out.


	2. Opening the Doors

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - He can be easy to forget since he so much in the background. Yes, Brianna, is pretty tough.

gabrieldarke - Glad you liked it and were eager for more. You are correct, that conversation was there twice. Thanks for pointing that out. I corrected it.

Iris Sanchez 125 - I'm glad you were able to get some time away to check out my story. I hope you enjoyed your time with your family. It has been fun showing the interaction between Chris and Brianna. Yes, Wyatt was raised by some pretty stubborn people. You will get to see at least some of Brianna's friends in part two of this story and you will get something of an update on those you don't see. Thank you for pointing out about the repeating chapter. I have fixed that. I'll have to get back to you on the inspiration for this story (which I finished yesterday) as I don't recall. See I came up with the idea about two and a half years ago when I started this series. You get regular up dates because I am behind in posting. I will probably start writing the next episode either today or tomorrow. I have several chapters of it outlined which will help. Enjoy this next chapter. There's more interaction between Chris and Brianna.

In this next chapter it's time to try and get in the museum, but it's a little more complicated than Chris thought it would be. Meanwhile Brianna's done her research and found out what her uncle did to lock the building down.

* * *

Chapter Two - Opening the Doors

Chris orbed in between two cars in the museum parking lot. On his back was a backpack with eight doses of the cure safely tucked in it. He felt like a grade school student heading off to his first day of school rather than an adult witch trying to get a cure for a magical curse to his older brother.

He stood up and walked toward the building. His eyes widened as he saw the crowd in front of the museum. The area was roped off, holding people thirty or so feet from the building. Policemen stood on one side of the tape working crowd control. Many people stood on the other side of the tape. Chris recognized some of them as coworkers of Wyatt's. He ignored them and tried to look for a way in. The front door obviously wasn't it.

A bouncing sound behind him caught his attention. He turned around just in time to see Emily Colson's feet hit the ground.

"I assume by your entrance that your mom was able to fix your powers. Did you also find a cure for whatever is in there?" she asked as she walked over to him.

"How long have you been waiting here?" he asked, not liking the fact that she was so close to this.

"Long enough," she replied with a shrug. "I figured you'd show up eventually and that this was the only way I was going to tell me anything."

Chris sighed. "Emily, you can't get so close to these things. It's too dangerous."

"This is my brother, Chris," Emily reminded him. "I can't do much, but I can lend my presence." She paused before asking, "Do you have your phone?"

Chris frowned and pulled it out of his pocket.

Emily grabbed it and started pushing buttons, getting into menus.

Chris stared at her, too stunned to react for a moment. When he did, it was only to ask, "What are you doing?"

"Putting my number into your phone," she informed him without pausing. "Call me when it's safe to go find Nate." She gave him a smile and climbed back onto the hood of the she had jumped off of when she'd spotted him.

Chris glanced at the new entry in his phone's contact list. He closed his phone and moved a little closer to the boundary the police had built. He didn't bother getting past the edge of the parking lot. There was no way he was going to get in there through the front entrance. He focused his attention on being invisible and walked around toward the back. Though he passed two police officers trying, unsuccessfully, to open one of the windows, he didn't find anyone around back. He relaxed and allowed himself to be visible again as he headed toward the door. He passed the stone railing to the stairs and did a double take as he found Brianna waiting there for him. "I thought you had something to do."

"I finished it," she informed him, "but now I have a problem."

He looked up at her wearily. "What's that?"

She held out a piece of paper. "The spell on this paper should get us inside, but I'm right about why we can't enter."

"But?" he's expression growing wearier. "I head a but."

"If I'm wrong, it'll make things worse," she informed him as she put the paper into her pocket.

Chris' frown grew even more. "What do you need to know?"

"The spell I think was used, can't lock doors physically," she informed him as she pushed herself to a standing position. "What it does is prevent magical travel through its borders." She gave him a wry look. "That's pretty much been tested, since I understand your brother can't exit and I've tried. I can't enter through blinking." She glared at the building. "I'm pretty convinced that it was used, but as I said, it can't physically lock the doors, so it is used with another spell most of the time. I can't test that spell."

"How can I help?"

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "The thing is, all the other spell does is hide normal locks. You can't see them and you can't touch them."

"So cast the counter to that that one, if the counter to the other one is dangerous," Chris reasoned.

"Unfortunately, it's not that simple," she announced. "I need to know what's being hidden or the spell won't work even if there is something there."

"So you need to know if there is an invisible lock," he snorted as he looked at the door behind her.

She nodded. "But I'm not sure how and if I reverse the other spell and it's the wrong spell, it might permanently mess something up." She frowned as she realized she could no longer see Chris anywhere. "Where did you go?"

Meanwhile, an invisible Chris ignored her as he focused on staying invisible. Clearly she had a short memory, since he had told her about this power earlier. He walked past her to the back entrance, he eyes focused on the chains holding the door closed. "Chains!" he ordered.

Orb lights surrounded the chains, but they didn't move an inch. He hadn't actually expected anything, but he was still disappointed. He turned around to face Brianna and relaxed, allowing her to see him.

"Oh!" she gasped. "I forgot about that."

_Clearly._

"Anything there?"

"Chains on the door," he announced. "Do you need more of a description than that or will that suffice?"

"No that will work," she agreed quickly. "Thanks."

"So what's next?" He asked as he glanced back at the building. "Will those spells you have work?"

She pulled the paper back out of her pocket and unfolded it. "Yes, it should." She looked down at it and began to read. "Unchain this door, let all pass thru. Make visible bonds, let magic thru. All attempts go through the door. Release the evil from its core."

"Evil!" Chris exclaimed even as he saw the chain on the door became visible.

"Yes," she agreed. "There's more to this than you know, but you don't need those details now. Get that chain off the door while I undo the other spell."

"Why couldn't you undo the other one first?" he asked as he held out his hand. "Chain!" Once more orb lights swirled around it and nothing else happened.

Brianna scowled. "Looks like unless you can get that off without magic, I'm going to have to cast this other spell first."

"Then get on it," he ordered. He pulled out his phone and dialed the last number received.

Brianna sighed. "Within these halls good magic revive. As orbing returns evil won't survive. Magical transport can from within, or from without be used to rescue them."

"Wyatt's not answering him," Chris informed her as he flipped closed his phone. "Can we get in?"

"Orb away that chain and go find your brother," she ordered him. "I'll take care of the rest of the exits."

"Chain!" Chris called out as he held out his hand once more. This time the orb lights swirled around and when they disappeared, the chain went with them, straight into Chris outstretched hand. He dropped it to the ground and orbed away.

As Brianna walked toward the next exit she thought about how she had located those spells.

* * *

_The air was still. The room was dark. It was definitely not quiet. From the other room sounds could be heard of children reciting the spelling of words along with a voice on the TV._

_It was to the sound of squeals of joy that Brianna blinked into Ry's empty study. Keeping an ear open for footsteps, she whispered, "Entire reveal."_

_A cold shadow swept through the room making Brianna shiver even as items appeared on the shelves, posters appeared on the walls, and a dart board featuring a picture of the local law enforcement officers. She rolled her eyes at the dartboard and the picture which was liberally sprinkled with holes and looked around._

_She located a news article on the wall about a fire in an apartment complex. Several hundred people had been trapped in the building. Most of them had died. The doors had been magically locked in much the same manner as she believed the Museum of American History currently was. The word "victory" was hand written at the top of the article, but there were no clues as to what spell had been used._

_"Uncle Ry, why couldn't you have understood?" she whispered sadly. She knew there was little of no chance for most of her dead mother's coven, but they had always been good to her and it made her sad to see them as they truly were._

_Footsteps reminded her of what she was after and she looked toward the bookcase. She pulled off a likely seeming book, flipped it open to confirm it's contents, and sighed in relief upon seeing that it was what she thought it was._

_"Entire hide," she whispered as she tucked the grimoir under her arm. She heard the footsteps coming closer and blinked out with the grimoir even as the shadows hid everything in the room, again._

_Ry's widow and kids knew nothing of his other life. She hoped they never found out, but chances were high that they would. Those three children were going to ask questions when it occurred to them that they had magical powers, because she rather doubted Ry would have done anything to hide that from them, especially while magic was gone._

_She was going to have to go back and hope that she provided a positive magical influence before someone else offered a negative one._

_As soon as Brianna blinked into her bedroom she laid the grimoir out on her bed and started flipping through it. It took her almost ten minutes to find the page she wanted._

_She grabbed a notepad and pencil and started copying the counter spells she needed, hoping that she didn't have this all wrong. From what she'd read of the crystal, every minute she spent was one that made the situation worse and from the look of these spells, they were probably causing their fair share of trouble for the people in the building._

_Once she finished copying, she stuffed the grimoir on her shelf. "Hide from every prying eye, this thing I want no eye to spy. Until the time I want it back, change the image, no detail lack."_

_She stuffed the paper in her pocket and blinked in behind the museum. She surveyed it for several seconds before plopping down on the steps to try and think of a solution. It had been less than a minute later when Chris had rounded the corner and presented the solution she needed._

* * *

"Unchain this door, let all pass thru. Make visible bonds, let magic thru. All attempts go through the door. Release the evil from its core."

As soon as the chain holding the door closed was visible she realized that she had a problem she'd forgotten to consider. Without Chris there, she had neither the magic to simply move it nor the strength to remove it on her own. Well, there were other ways to get around this. It was just going to take some creativity, especially when she got to the doors up front. For now, it was time to get to work.

* * *

When magic was unusable life was a lot less complicated for Brianna, but now those within her mothers coven are showing their true colors and she has to deal with the truth.

In the next chapter time has run out and if a life is to be saved, action must be taken at once.


	3. Attack to Kill

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Yes, it is the same coven. Brianna has always had a relationship with both covens (her mom's and her dad's). Right now, her mom's coven is in focus, but you'll learn more about the other coven in time.

The curse has finally gotten the better (or rather the worse) of Wyatt.

* * *

Chapter Three - Attack to Kill

Confident that Kelly was fine and that Nathan and Andrew would be for the present, Wyatt had decided to check on Olivia. He only hoped her could control the thoughts that kept going through his head. He'd decided to walk in hopes that it would clear his head a little, but it had only given his mind more time to think about things he never wanted to think about.

_They hate you. They all hate you._

"No, they don't," Wyatt heard himself arguing aloud. _Arguing with myself. Great.. I'm a real idiot._

Yes, you are. And they know that.

"I'm not though," Wyatt argued. "Just because I thought it doesn't make it so." _I hope._

_But you are and no one wants you around. Even your brother wants you gone._

Wyatt glared ahead of him. "That's not true. That's not true! Leave me alone!"

_Haven't you noticed how he's keeping secrets from you, how they all are?_

"That doesn't mean they don't want me around," Wyatt argued, not bothering to deny that his family was keeping secrets. He knew they were, but it didn't mean they didn't love him. "Go away!"

Wyatt was so busy arguing with himself that he didn't notice Olivia sneaking up with him. His first clue was when a he felt a stabbing pain as a letter opener was stabbed into his right shoulder.

Wyatt spun around, all reason lost on him as he grabbed Olivia and slammed her into the wall. He slammed her against it, time and again until she lost consciousness. Breathing hard he glared down at her. He reached back and tried to pull the letter opener out of his shoulder, but couldn't get a good grip on it. He looked around and grabbed one of Hal's vases. He stood over Olivia's unconscious body and held it up.

"Vase!" Chris voice yelled. The vase orbed out of Wyatt's hands and into Chris'.

Wyatt turned around, glaring at his brother, his eyes bloodshot. "How dare you interrupt?"

"I dare because my brother looks like he's trying to kill someone," Chris shot back. He put the vase back on its pedestal. "Is she alive?"

Wyatt took in several deep breaths as he looked at Chris. "Didn't I tell you to stay away from here?"

"Are you able to heal her without hurting her worse?" Chris pressed. "Let's stay focused on what's important here."

Wyatt closed his eyes for a second and then turned back around to look at Olivia's body slumped against the wall. He stooped down and held his hands over her until a golden glow began to emanate from them. He kept them there until she began to move. His body began to wobble as he stood stooped there. As Olivia's eyes blinked open Wyatt toppled over, moaning. He screamed as the action caused the letter opener still stuck in his shoulder to be shoved deeper in.

Olivia stared up at him with wide eyes. "He tried to kill me."

"Quite possibly," Chris mumbled.

"I mean he really tried to kill me," she repeated in shock.

"He's not himself right now," Chris informed her.

"Wait, how'd you get here?" she looked at him confused. "Wyatt said . . . but then it was Wyatt."

"Wyatt told you the truth," Chris interrupted. "Things have changed." He looked down at his older brother, still howling in pain on the floor. "I'm guessing by the knife in his shoulder that you weren't the only one attacked in the past few minutes."

"Me?" she stared at him confused. "No, I wouldn't do that. That would be bad."

"Yes," he agreed. "Look I need you to do something for me, okay."

She pulled her eyes away from Wyatt and looked at him suspiciously. "What's that?"

"I need you to go get me some cups from the drinking fountain . . . wherever that is . . . and fill them with water."

"You don't work here, do you," she mumbled.

"No," he agreed. "I'm here about the problem of people acting abnormal, like he is, like you were when you stabbed him. I have a medicine to help, but I need to have some cups for it."

She frowned. "He drinks it first," she announced pointing at Wyatt.

"Sure," he agreed quickly. "Just get me some cups while I deal with the knife."

"Letter opener."

"What?"

"It's a letter opener," she informed him.

"Oh." Chris was at a loss as to what else to say. "Well, thanks for the info." _I'll be sure to use it well._ As soon as Olivia rounded the corner into another corridor Chris looked down at his brother. "Letter opener!" he ordered in a whisper. When it orbed to him he moved out of the way and let it drop to the floor. He didn't want to risk getting infected, even with the extra dose he carried. He'd never hear the end of it if he did. "Wy, how are you feeling?"

"Terrible," Wyatt told him as he rolled over. "Didn't I tell you to stay out of here?"

"I believe there was an implied 'without the cure' in that order," Chris countered, shaking a finger at his brother.

Wyatt looked at him startled as Olivia rounded the corner, unnoticed, with the paper cups of water. "You have the cure?"

Olivia stopped and waited in silence.

"I do," Chris agreed. "But it smells awful, so I sent your co-worker . . ."

"Olivia."

"Right," Chris conceded. "I sent Olivia for some water to wash away the taste."

"But it will work?" Olivia asked from behind Chris.

Chris turned around and looked at her. "It will work. Will you drink it?"

She stared at them in silence. Her eyes shifted back and forth between the two brothers. "If he takes it first," she finally decided.

Chris looked back at his brother. "Well?"

Wyatt nodded. "Yes, please." He sat up, careful not to touch his back to the wall.

Chris returned his attention to Olivia. "Give him one of the cups."

"Say please," she directed him.

"Please," he conceded.

Olivia handed one of the cups to Wyatt. She turned her suspicious eyes to Chris. "The medicine?"

Chris pulled out two small glass bottles with screw on lids. He handed one of them to Wyatt.

"No, I want that one," Olivia protested before Wyatt could grasp it in his hand.

Chris shrugged. He handed the bottle to her, careful not to actually touch her.

She grabbed it from him. Then, she surprised them both by unscrewing the lid and swallowing it down in one gulp. She then followed it with the water. As she downed the water, the brothers watched astounded as green bubbles popped all over her head and continued down her body. When it reached the bottoms of her feet a green smoke puffed around them and vanished into nothing. She stared down at the empty bottle.

With horror Olivia's eyes fell on Wyatt. "I stabbed you. Oh, my word, I stabbed you!"

_She's mocking you. She deserves to die._

The wild look returned to Wyatt's eye.

"Wyatt, stand down!" Chris ordered him.

Wyatt snorted, his eyes continuing to watch Olivia.

Olivia ran behind Chris, as if he was enough of a barrier to protect her from Wyatt.

_Chris is becoming a nuisance. You may need to deal with him first._

"She's an innocent," Chris pleaded.

Wyatt's eyes snapped to Chris. "The cure. Quick!"

Chris handed it over to him, again, careful not to touch him.

Wyatt's next actions mimicked Olivia's down to the green bubbles as he gulped down first the potion and then the water. As the smoke dissipated around his feet he felt as if a giant weight was removed from his shoulders.

Olivia watched in fascination at the strange things happening in front of her. She peeked around Chris and in a whispered voice asked, "Are you okay now?"

Wyatt gulped. "I think so." He closed his eyes and found to his relief that there was no sense that his friends were in immediate danger. "Chris, how did you get in?"

"Back door."

Wyatt looked over at Olivia. "If you want to leave there's your way out. It should be safe enough now, but try not to let anyone see you. Kelly said that everyone is out there trying to get in."

Olivia glanced down at her watch. "It's closer to close than it is to open. I'm not surprised."

"I'm sorry."

"I should hope so," she agreed. "I want answers, but seeing as I seem to recall trying to kill myself and you somehow fixing that, I will wait, but I want them. Something very strange has been happening here today."

Wyatt nodded. "I know. And I'm sorry you were involved."

She looked at them rather hesitantly. "I'll see you next week. I mean to get tomorrow off and Hal will not deny me."

Wyatt chuckled. "Try not to be seen. I'm not sure we're ready for people to come in."

She frowned. "We weren't the only ones, were we?"

He shook his head. "No, and they still need the cure."

She sucked in a breath and nodded. "In that case I'll be in my office with my door locked. Fix it."

Once she had rounded the corner, Wyatt turned to his brother. "They are alive down there, but Andrew's already tried to kill himself once and Nathan once. Can you . . ?"

Chris raised an eyebrow at his older brother. "Can I what?"

"Mom said your powers . . ."

"My powers are fine," Chris assured him. "Mom fixed that. Let's go help your friends."

* * *

Wyatt and Olivia are cured, but they both are going to have a lot to deal with involving what just happened.

The next chapter is called "Changing Around". Piper's got an offer for Prue and someone has plans for the sisters that they may or may not like much . . . but until they understand them they aren't going to like them at all. Be ready for a surprise.


	4. Changing Around

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Problem two is about half dealt with.

This next chapter was so much fun. There are certain things I love putting into a story. One of those is sibling bonding, in this case, between these sisters. Another is just about anything that messes with their heads, which is why you see power switching, body switching stories and spells as well as situations where someone will pretend to be someone else, and also a bit of why you get a certain group of characters that sometimes make no sense to anyone but those within their group.

Enjoy this new chapter. By the end of it, I hope you are just as stunned as the three sisters are.

Happy New Year!

* * *

Chapter Four - Changing Around

"How are you and Andy adjusting to your home?" Piper asked as she wrote "Aphrodite Crystal Cure" on a label and stuck it on the vial.

"Not all that well," Prue admitted. "As you know I found a job at that art museum on Fifth, but a nearly thirty year employment gap doesn't look good for me or Andy. He still hasn't found anything and it's beginning to bother him. We really appreciate all the help you two have been giving us."

"Not help my sister," Piper teased with a mock look of horror on her face. "I'd never do that."

Prue grinned. "Ben and Alice have helped some, too, but I hate causing all this trouble."

"We're glad to help," Paige assured her. "And speaking of help, my girls were wondering if your girls would like to spend a weekend over at our place. Think you could help me arrange that?"

Prue smiled. "Sure. The girls have been having trouble making friends in school, especially when it's someone they knew before and now everything's different and everyone looks the same, but they're all strangers. My girls would really enjoy the chance to hang out with their cousins and not have to worry about knowing too much, especially Pat. A little over two weeks ago she came home in the doldrums. She'd run into a girl who'd been a good friend in school. Her friend was killed in a car accident just before they started high school and Pat says she completely messed things up and now this girl thinks she's a freak and it has Pat pretty depressed."

"That's awful," Piper commented. "Have you run into that, too?"

Prue nodded. "There're too many memories, too many things that are close, but way too far away. It's hard to remember what we should and shouldn't know. That's why I'm so glad I have you two, that Andy has Ben and now Darryl to talk to, and that my girls have their cousins." She looked over at Paige with a grin. "Pat's been calling all three of your kids everyday for the last two weeks, so they can help her on various school projects. She doesn't want to deal with the kids in her own school anymore."

Paige laughed. "So that's who Hanks been talking to. I'd been wondering." She cocked her head to the side, "But are you sure they're talking about homework?"

Prue frowned. "What else would they be working on?"

"Magic," Paige announced. "I've heard Hank discussing potion ingredients, demons we've dealt with, and how to write spells. It's not something I usually hear one of my kids discussing over the phone."

"I hope she doesn't think she needs to hide that from me," Prue commented with a frown. "I'll have to talk to her when I get home."

"I wish you would just move back to San Francisco," Piper commented as she put away the last of the potion ingredients. "It would be a lot easier to visit you if we didn't have to drag Paige into it every time."

"Paige doesn't mind," Paige retorted, "so long as you don't call me when I'm busy or a charge needs me."

"And why is _Paige_ referring to herself in the third person?" Piper teased.

"Because she's feeling left out," Paige returned.

"Right," Piper drawled, "because all this talk about your kids is so far from discussing you."

Paige chuckled. "True. Speaking of kids, do you think we should call yours?"

"As much as I want to, I promised Chris I'd give him an hour before I started calling him or reinforcements." She glanced down at her watch. "He still has twenty-five minutes. It's frustrating. The potion will work. I verified that girl's findings, but that doesn't tell me if Chris will get it to everyone in time."

"Twenty-five more minutes," Prue mumbled. "Why'd you give him so much time?"

"Because he's my son," Piper informed her, "and I trust him with magic, because he _can_ do this. And by giving him a time limit I have an excuse to call him as soon as it's up which he can't complain about, because I warned him. It's not working too well though, because right now I want to be more involved than just making potions. Problem is, other than when Tyler coming to me, I haven't had any idea where to look to find innocents in need of help. They've pretty much been falling into my sons' laps, but they are trying to protect me. Me! They're the kids. I'm the parent. It's supposed to go the other way around. And without Phoebe we don't even have premonitions, because none of the kids got them. It's probably the universe conspiring against us so that all four of us can't be together." Piper scowled.

"Calm down, Piper," Prue directed her, putting an arm around her shoulders as Paige stood nearby looking concerned. "Phoebe is alive and she's out there somewhere. Grams or Mom would have told us if she wasn't. We will find her and we will bring her home safely."

Piper sighed and snuggled up against Prue. "I know. I'm just so worried about her."

Paige came over and hugged Piper and Prue. "We'll find her."

Piper wiped away a tear forming in her eye. "Someone distract me, please. There's too much time left."

"Next time, give them less time," Prue suggested with a chuckle. "How about you tell me about your restaurant? You have one in the other reality, but you called it Chez Magique."

"House of Magic, huh," Piper replied with a laugh as she turned in her sister's arms. "A little obvious, don't you think?"

Prue chuckled, again. "A reporter asked you about that at the open and you said whatever anyone said or thought, Phoebe was your sister whom you loved and she died because she was accused of magic, but the only magic you would admit to was the magic of sisterhood, which was kind of ironic considering our relationships when she died."

"I got that idea," Piper admitted. "Your assistant hadn't even met me."

"She'd met you," Prue assured her, "but it had been a long time. Let's not talk about that, though. I'd rather you tell me about The Manor."

Piper smiled. "Well, up until November I had a full crew. Then, I lost two of my chefs when they moved to Florida. Since I still had Callie and Jen I didn't worry too much about it, except Jen quit the next month citing personal reasons." Piper scowled. "I also lost various waiters and waitresses over the last few months for different reasons. And one of my waitresses, Chelsea Michaels was on maternity leave for three months. It pretty much left me scrambling and then on top of it demons were attacking, again."

"Sounds like it hasn't been easy for you lately with your restaurant," Prue commented.

"Well, now that Chris works for me, it's been going a lot better," Piper admitted. "I've hired some more waiters and waitresses and I have a new greeter to help out Drinka. You've met Drinka. She's an absolute marvel and she knows about magic so she can help me or Chris by covering for us if needed."

"How about chefs?" Prue asked. "You said you lost three, but Chris is the only one you've hired on."

"I hired a girl yesterday who has potential," Piper informed her, "but she wants to work as a waitress, so we'll see. I also have a couple of kids on my wait staff who either have interest or talent. Of course at least one of those is only seventeen, so I can't have him in the kitchen quite yet."

"Sounds like you are getting things back in place," Prue commented as she sat down on the couch.

"Yeah, it's getting back to normal," Piper agreed as she sat down on the arm of the couch.

"She's also got a teenager working for her that has decided she's going to cover for them," Paige informed Prue as she plopped down on the couch next to her.

Prue frowned. "I understand telling Drinka, since you explained that, but a teenager? Does she even have magic?"

"Not the type you mean," Paige announced. "And it wasn't Piper's decision. That's all on the boys, but they don't seem to be handling well. You saw her earlier, the girl that brought the box for Piper."

Prue looked at her. "Oh, her."

Piper turned a questioning look on her. "What do you mean "oh, her"? Emily has been sticking her nose in things and she could get into trouble."

"Has she actually gotten in the line of sight of any demons?" Prue asked, because she came to us today."

"She came to us, yes," Piper agreed, adding, "but who's to say where she went when she left. When James Thomas kidnapped all those kids, she spied on some people who were most likely witches and reported what she saw to Chris."

"Sounds like she is trying to impress, Chris," Prue chuckled.

"Well, she's not," Piper informed her. "She's got Chris regretting his decision to let her remember his saving her."

"What happened?"

"She fell off a ladder in my kitchen and almost got knifed," Piper told her, remembering the story her son had told her. "Chris orbed her out of the way and then he used the truth spell on her, but he changed it."

"Right," Prue stated, remembering the conversation earlier that day. "Not his brightest move. Hopefully he's right and she won't change her mind or circumstances won't change it for her."

"Darryl never did," Piper reminder her. "Even when things went badly, he never told anyone other than his wife."

"So all we have to do is fear the person this Emily marries?" Prue retorted with rolled eyes.

"I'm sure if that's a problem, we can worry about it later," Piper responded, laughing.

"She seemed like a nice girl," Paige commented. "Hopefully she will be a good friend for your boys and a good employee for you."

Piper sighed. "Yes, if all she does is cover for us, she should be fine, but it worries me that someone dropped off something magical for me at her house."

"She might have been picked simply because she worked for you."

"Which worries me even more," Piper admitted. "If that's true, then any of my employees could be in danger."

"Remember the muses," Paige reminded her. "The warlock brought Melody to P3 on a busy night. That could have been bad."

Piper groaned.

"Remember the guardian demon," Prue added. "We had some dead bodies at P3, because of that."

Piper winced.

"And it sure wasn't good when Abbey was so obsessed with me," Prue continued. "And she wasn't even a demon. Things happen around us, Piper. It's not often a good thing, but it's something we have to live with." She smiled at Piper. "So you're just going to have to enjoy your restaurant and do your best to see to it that nothing happens there."

"But it will," Piper moaned. "Is that what you are saying?"

"Not necessarily," Prue shook her head. "Just if something does, don't waste time bemoaning it and just deal with it as best you can."

"And call for reinforcements," Paige added. "You've got a large family to help you. Utilize it."

"I'm closing The Manor and P3 now," Piper said, pulling out her cell.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous," Prue instructed her as she grabbed the phone out of her phone. "P3? It's still open?"

"Oh course," Piper agreed, letting her have the phone. "Of course for all I've been there lately it could have been condemned and I wouldn't have noticed. I've been so busy these last few months trying to put my crew at The Manor back together and dealing with the demons my sons throw my way that I haven't had time for much else. Leo and I have tried to spend a couple of free days together only to be interrupted. Once it was because demons had attacked Wyatt and cut his spinal cord. Thank goodness for Paige."

"I didn't do that," Paige told her. "I was going to heal him, but I never did. Someone else did or else Wyatt has learned to self heal, something I can't do."

"Great another mystery I don't need," Piper bemoaned. "I haven't had a proper date with my husband in almost six months. My sister has been missing for almost three months. I have an over curious teenager working for me who knows about magic. And I haven't even been _in_ P3 since Jen quit in December. Not even once."

"I would have thought you would have sold P3," Prue commented. "Didn't you need the money to start The Manor?"

Piper shook her head. "I couldn't have sold P3. It's got too many memories of you, Phoebe, and me together, something I didn't think I could ever have more of." Thinking of Phoebe she gulped. "Something I still don't know if I can have more of."

Prue hugged her arm around her and pulled her off the arm of the couch onto the cushions. "We are going to find Phoebe and she's going to be all right. We're here," she reminded her sisters as she pulled Paige into the hug, "all three alive and well. If that's possible, then anything's possible."

Piper grinned. "Right. So P3's not going anywhere. Besides it's a good club with a good income." She laughed as she added, "With all the damage done to this house over the years . . ." She winked at her sister. "We need the money." A sudden though stilled her. A grin grew wide on her face as the idea took root and grew wings. "Hey, Prue, what would it take to get you to move back to San Francisco?"

"A job for one," Prue retorted.

"Done," Piper announced. "There's about to be an opening at P3 for a manager/entertainment coordinator. It's yours if you want it."

Paige snorted as she realized what was going on. She knew why that job was about to be open.

"You are not firing someone to give me a job," Prue informed her, her brows furrowed together.

"Of course not," Piper agreed, thinking about the note downstairs. "He's quitting to return to school."

Prue relaxed a little. "Well, as long as you aren't firing someone."

"Besides as an original investor in P3 I owe you all sorts of back pay," Piper added.

"I'd have to discuss this with Andy," Prue hedged.

"Naturally," Piper agreed. "It needs to be a joint decision. Moving across country is a big deal."

"And we'd have to find a way to explain everything to Andy's parents and his sister," Prue added, her mind elsewhere as she played with the possibilities in her mind.

Paige looked at her surprised. "You mean you haven't told them."

Prue shook her head, pulling her mind back to the attic. "Mark and Alice never told them that Alice was a witch, so we couldn't figure out a way to explain without mentioning that."

"Oh, boy," Paige whispered.

Prue gave her a look. "And how much does Henry's family know?"

Paige nodded, understanding. "Fair point, but still it's going to be tough to dump all of that on them all of a sudden."

"No kidding," Prue agreed. "Andy would love to be able to talk to his parents and his sister. Sarah and her husband have twin daughter who are just a year younger that Vicki and she just told Mark and Alice last week that she's expecting another baby, maybe even more twins since they run in Josh's family." With a chuckle, she added, "A lot."

"Is Josh Sarah's husband?" Piper asked. This was the first time she'd heard much about Sarah's family. And Sarah was so many years younger than her brothers that it was the first time she's actually heard much about Sarah at all. Sarah had been so much younger than them, just starting high school when they'd gone to Andy's funeral all those years before.

Prue nodded. "Yeah, Josh Gibson. According to Ben he's a pretty nice guy, but I've never met him."

In a dark corner of the attic not quite illuminated by the light the sisters were using the air shimmered and formed into two people. They crouched down and looked across the room.

_How long you think it will be before they notice us?_

The question popped into the head of one of the two intruders as an almost audible voice. The turned and glared at the young man next to him, the source of that voice. _A while if we are silent and don't move. I don't intend to wait that long._

An audible sigh popped into his head along with the words, _Good. Let's get this done then._

_Are you sure you want to do this?_ he replied through his thoughts, as if talking telepathically was common place for him. It wasn't. _It's not too late to turn back._

_I'm sure,_ the thought popped into his head. _From what I saw they are going to need this if they are going to get their sister back._

_So offer them _your_ help,_ he suggested. _Tell them what you saw._

His companion's head shook. _No. They have to see if for themselves._ He bit down on his lip to stifle an exclamation of pain.

_I thought I said silent,_ he retorted in his thoughts.

_Repeat that._

_Why?_

_I couldn't concentration on reading your mind._ There was several seconds of silence followed by, _Please._

He sighed. _All I thought was a stupid comment about being silent. You okay?_

_Not really,_ his companion admitted. _Let's get this over._ His companion pulled out a folded piece of paper. He turned his head and looked him. _Any chance you can cast this?_

He rolled his head. _You're the witch here, not me. No spell casting for me._

Expecting that answer, his companion nodded his head and in a low whisper began to chant. "A sisters' bond is always there, even after thirty years. What's Prue's is Phoebe's, what's Phoebe's is Prue's. There is so much to lose. To keep them from this pain I find, let their powers cross the line. I offer up their gifts to share, switch the powers through the air. As the powers switch around, undo it only when Phoebe is found."

Across the room Prue noticed a spiraled ball of light exit her body and head for the window. She jumped to her feet and waved her hand at it. It didn't slow down.

"What on earth?" Piper exclaimed as she rose to her feet.

"Light ball!" Paige called out as she held out her hand.

Nothing happened.

Prue groaned, catching the attention of her sisters.

"Prue?"

"I can't use my powers," Prue informed them as she waved her hand at a chair across the room. "Nothing. I think someone just stole my powers."

That was when the second ball of light entered the room from the same general path of the first. It went straight for Prue and slammed into her, entering her body before she could even protest.

Prue waved her hand, hoping it was her powers returning to her. Her hand brushed against Paige and she was pulled into a premonition.

* * *

_Piper and Paige looked at Prue worried as she stood there unmoving._

_Prue gasped and looked at them in shock._

_Before she could say a word, Paige's cell phone rang. Paige dug into her pocket._

_Piper opened her mouth to speak._

* * *

Prue gasped as she came out of the premonition and looked at her sisters in shock.

They were both looking at her worried.

Before she could say a word, Paige's cell phone rang. Paige dug into her pocket.

"Prue, what happened?" Piper asked, concerned. "You zoned out there for a moment. It reminded me a little of . . ."

"Phoebe," Prue finished. "It reminded you of Phoebe, because somehow I just had a premonition."

* * *

So what do you think just happened there? Why would someone want to cast a spell that did that? Was that their intention? And what does it mean that Prue suddenly has premonitions but can't use her telekinesis?


	5. Is It Over?

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - Very true. Admittedly, she didn't handle empathy so well the last time she had it (Primrose Empath), but thankfully some members of her family have taken a blocking potion. I suspect more of them will be taking one soon if they can get the ingredients, which could be tough.

gabrieldarke - Well, usually when a chapter is longer it means one of the following things: 1) It's not a Steve chapter, 2) I had trouble finding a way to get to the point (which usually also means the characters took over and were having their own conversations), or 3) I had a blast writing it and it just flowed well (usually also means the characters took over). The more I write the better I get at writing the longer chapters. I have also started making minimum limits for chapters (even Steve chapters). That doesn't mean they will be as long as this one or the last one, but it usually means they won't be as short as "Priorities" one of the chapters in my IF rewrite. I had a lot of fun with the interaction between the sisters. It's so much fun to work with them most of the time. The person who cast the spell was definitely not Brianna (both of them are male), but you could be right about the rest. Of course most of her friends can't cast spells, so that limits it a little. If it is some of her friends, why do you think they would do this rather than just talk to the sisters?

Random fact about the previous chapter: The phone call Paige recieved was unimportant to the story (other than it being in the premontion that Prue recieved), but it was one of her children on the other end if anyone wants to know.

This next chapter deals with Nathan and Andrew who are both trying to deal, but not very successfully.

* * *

Chapter Five - Is It Over?

Considering how rapidly things had went downhill with Wyatt and Olivia, neither brother wanted to take the time with the stairs. They orbed in just outside the door to the room where Nathan and Andrew still were. They heard yelling coming from the other side of the door.

Wyatt entered the room first, wanting to protect his brother if one of his friends was dangerous. As Chris closed the door behind them, Wyatt looked at his two friends.

Andrew was pacing the room, ringing his hand and occasionally stopping to yell some sort of unintelligible babble. The gibberish that came from his mouth seemed to comfort him in some way.

Nathan, on the other hand, sat in the far corner of the room, his arms wrapped around his knees, rocking back and forth, as he argued with some unseen foe.

Chris stared at them in horrified wonderment. "What is he doing?" he whispered as Andrew screamed.

"No! No! No!" came Andrew's finally intelligible cry.

Chris put down his backpack and pulled out two bottles. He handed one to Wyatt.

"I won't do it!" Andrew yelled. "You can't make me!"

Chris raised an eyebrow at his brother. "You want to deal with him? Or should I?"

His words weren't soft enough and Andrew stopped his pacing to look at them. "What did you say?"

"We're trying to help, Andrew," Wyatt told him, trying to calm him.

Andrew shook his head. "No, no you're trying to hurt him, too."

"Trying to hurt who?" Wyatt asked confused.

"Nathan," Andrew informed him. "Can't you hear them?" His eyes narrowed as he stalked closer to the brothers. "Or maybe you're in league with them." He took menacing steps toward them. "That's it, isn't it? You sent the voices."

Wyatt moaned. "Andrew, remember the conversation we had earlier. I'm not trying to hurt you."

It was silent except for the sound of heavy breathing as Andrew eyed them critically.

"Lacey needs me," Nathan announced, breaking the silence.

Andrew looked at Nathan. "Do you have any idea what I did?" he asked looking back at the brothers.

"I was here," Wyatt reminded him.

Andrew shook his head. "You don't get it," he accused, anger returning to his eyes. "I killed my best friend. Look at him, he's dying in pieces."

"Andrew, you didn't infect Nathan," Wyatt reminded him. He shot a glance at his brother.

Chris correctly interpreted the look and backed up against the wall. He slowly edged out of Andrew's line of site and toward Nathan.

"Let me help you, Andrew," Wyatt offered.

"I don't deserve help," Andrew insisted. "I killed Nathan."

Wyatt shook his head. "Andrew, Nathan's not dead."

"But he is," Andrew insisted.

Chris reached Nathan and squatted down a couple feet from him. In a low voice he began to speak for Nathan's ears only. "Hi, Nathan. I'm Chris, Wyatt's little brother."

Nathan made a clear effort to focus his eyes on Chris. "I think we've met before," he mumbled.

"Probably," Chris agreed. "You were just saying that Lacey needs you."

"And Glory," Nathan added.

"And who are they?"

"Lacey's my wife," Nathan appeared to be exerting a lot of effort to say that. "But I can't return to her if I'm going to hurt her."

"Are you going to hurt her?"

Nathan nodded. "I caused all this. I opened the box. I infected Andrew with it and Olivia. And Andrew infected Wyatt. It's all because of me. I'd only hurt Lacey if I went to her like this." The more he spoke, the less effort he seemed to require. "I hear Andrew over there ranting and raving about hurting me, but it's my fault. If it weren't for me, he never would have tried to kill himself. And he never would have attacked me. It's not in him to do stuff like that." He scowled as he looked up at Chris. He had stopped rocking. His eyes were perfectly clear and lucid. "It's all because I scoffed at the idea that the crystal was magical," he decided. "Had I ignored that box . . ."

"Someone else would have grabbed it and opened it," Chris informed him. "Had it not been you it might have been someone who grabbed it and brought it up stairs while the museum was open, infecting countless numbers of people with it before they even realized what had gone wrong."

"It's kind of hard to ignore the green glow and the chilling feeling of evil," Nathan retorted. "They'd have known."

"Did you?"

Nathan frowned and looked at Chris. "What do you mean?"

"Did you know it was as bad as this?" Chris asked. "Did Wyatt? Or Andrew?"

Nathan's brow furrowed as he considered the question. "I guess not."

"I have a cure for it," Chris informed him. "It's kind of awful smelling, but it works and it will allow you to go home without hurting your wife."

Nathan looked at him interested.

"I kind of forgot to bring something for you to wash it down," Chris admitted, "but it works. Olivia and Wyatt already had some and see how much better Wyatt seems." He was only guessing on that. He knew how Wyatt had been when he'd found him, but he didn't know how Wyatt had seemed when Nathan had seen him.

Nathan stared at him for several seconds and nodded. "I want to go home to my pregnant wife." He held out his hand.

Chris looked at the outstretched hand in surprise. He held out the small bottle still held tightly in his hand.

Nathan took it and unscrewed the lid. He wrinkled his nose at the smell. "For Lacey," he mumbled before he used his free hand to pinch his nose closed and tipped the bottle up to his lips.

As it had with Olivia and Wyatt green bubbles began at his head and made their way down to smoke at his toes. Nathan took in a deep breath of air and smiled. "That's amazing. The feeling of evil is gone." He looked down at the empty bottle in his hand. "It really is magic, isn't it?"

Chris didn't answer. There wasn't any chance to.

"What did you do to him?" Andrew yelled. "Was that poison?"

Wyatt moaned. When Andrew ran at him he lifted his shield.

It had the desired effect of shocking Andrew out of his rant. Andrew stared at Wyatt in shock. Apparently what he knew of magic was mostly in theory.

Nathan gasped and stared at the shield. Even as Wyatt dropped it, he stared at the place where it had been. He looked at Chris. "Was I seeing things or did your brother just generate a shield around himself out of thin air?"

Chris looked at his brother, not sure how much he should say.

Wyatt nodded. It was time his friend understood a bit more about him.

"I'm not sure I'd say it was out of thin air," Chris commented, "but Wyatt certainly did generate it. It's not something I can do to be sure."

Andrew's eyes fell on Nathan and he took in several deep breaths as his eyes cleared. "Nathan's alive."

Wyatt nodded.

"He's not going to die."

"Not today," Wyatt assured him. "Nathan will be all right. He's cured."

Andrew shook his head, confused, not believing.

"Andrew," Wyatt called, trying to force Andrew to focus on him, "Nathan is fine."

"He doesn't blame you for any of this," Chris added.

Andrew turned to look at Nathan. "You don't?"

"Of course not," Nathan protested instantly as he stood up and walked over to his friend. "Why would I?"

Andrew frowned, looking at him confused. "I tried to kill you."

Nathan shrugged. "And?"

"Isn't that enough?" Andrew asked, his confusion growing.

Nathan shook his head. "Not when you're cursed."

"When did you start believing in curses?" Andrew asked surprised.

"About the time I started believing in magic," Nathan admitted.

"Which was?" Andrew pushed.

"When my best friend strung himself up and I just watched," Nathan informed him, regret in his voice. "And then instead of trying to stop him, trying to save him, a voice in my head was telling me to kick the chair out from under him."

"Which you didn't," Andrew reminded him.

"But I thought it," Nathan argued.

"You didn't do it," Andrew argued back. "_I_ did. _I_ tried to kill you."

"Because _I_ infected you with a curse," Nathan pressed. "And you stopped." There wasn't a trace of doubt in his voice. He turned unquestioning eyes to Wyatt. "Didn't he? Remind him that you didn't stop him from killing me, that he stopped himself."

"Were you conscious?" Wyatt asked, confused. "I don't remember you being conscious."

Nathan shrugged and looked at Andrew. "I know him. He's been my best friend since before we turned two. We fight sometimes, but not even a curse could make either of us kill the other."

Andrew looked around the room.

"They have a cure for this," Nathan informed him. "If you take it, the voices will stop."

"I won't do it," Andrew announced, forcefully.

Nathan looked at him startled. "What?"

Andrew shook his head. "Not you."

"Andrew," Wyatt drew his friend's attention to him. "You said you believed in magic."

Nathan looked at Andrew in surprise.

Andrew nodded.

Wyatt held up the potion that his brother had handed him. "In this bottle is a potion that will cure you."

Nathan frowned at the word "potion".

"Olivia drank it," Wyatt continued. "I drank it. Nathan drank it just a minute ago. Now, it's your turn."

Andrew stared at him for several seconds and then oddly enough, he chuckled. "Potion, right," he mumbled with a laugh. He held out his hand. "I'm ready for this to be over."

"It tastes pretty nasty," Nathan warned as he watched Wyatt handled the bottle containing the potion to Andrew.

Andrew opened the potion and wrinkled his nose. He looked up at Wyatt. "This really works?"

Wyatt nodded. "Olivia and I were trying to kill each other when Chris came upon us. Well, I was trying to kill her. I'd already knocked her unconscious." He grimaced. "I had a voice trying to get me to do all manner of terrible things and it's gone. It hadn't stopped making some sort of sound, some sort of suggestion at least once a minute, usually more. Now, there's nothing. It's all me."

Andrew tipped the potion to his lips. As soon as it touched his tongue he pulled it away. He made a face as he held it away from his mouth. "You're not kidding, Nathan. This is nasty."

"Just drink it," Nathan directed him. "I want to go home."

Andrew sighed and lifted it to his lips, again. In a quick movement, he tipped it and let the liquid run down his throat. As he handed the bottle back to Wyatt, the green bubbles began at the top of his head and worked their way down. His eyes widened as he watched this progress down his body. "Just like that?"

"Hardly," Chris retorted. "If you had any idea what it took to get the ingredients needed for that. A little bit of this thing only found in this one location. A little bit of this other thing only found in this other location far away from the previous item. Fortunately the item my companion claimed was the hardest to find turned out to be the easiest for me."

Wyatt looked at him sharply at the word "companion".

Chris held his stomach. "And it was the worst form of transportation I have ever experienced. And it just got worse with ever location we traveled to."

Wyatt frowned. "Seth bothered you?"

Chris snorted. "It wasn't Seth. He was doing his own research which I'm going to deal with now."

"I'm going with you," Wyatt announced.

Chris shook his head. "No. Right now anyone looking in will only see another person who got trapped in this building. You leave and they've got a suspect. There are police out there, Wy."

Wyatt moaned. "What exactly are you taking care of?"

Chris smiled a little. "Apparently my former boss had an affinity for rare gems and got himself cursed."

Wyatt looked at him startled.

"Two of his best friends got themselves cursed in order to protect him from himself. They tied him up and then each other before the curse started effecting them and relied on another friend to stay uncursed and to keep them alive for the next week." There was a look of clear respect on Chris' face as he added. "I don't know that I could have done what they did, but I think it's time they were given the chance to get rid of that curse."

"Your brother did that," Andrew informed him. "He got cursed because he chose to come in here and save my life."

"Magic," Nathan mumbled, shaking his head. "This is going to take some getting used to." He began rummaging through his pockets.

"What are you looking for?" Andrew asked, more curious than anything else.

"My cell," Nathan informed him. "I need to call Lacey to reassure her if she's heard anything."

"It's in the air duct," Andrew announced, pointing at the air duct in question. "You threw it in there, remember?"

Nathan sighed as he looked up at it. "I'll never get it out."

Wyatt held out his hand and blue white orbs formed into a cell phone in his hand. He handed it over to Nathan. "Try not to put it in there, again. I'm not really supposed to use my powers for that sort of thing." He waved away Chris protest. "I figure I can get away with this, because you did that under the influence of a curse."

Chris sighed. "Before I get going, we need to figure out what to do with that crystal. We can't just leave it here."

Wyatt nodded. "Agreed. Did any of your research have suggestions on how to destroy it?"

"There wasn't much research that was actually mine," Chris admitted. "Most of it was either Peter's, Nick's, or Brianna's, but I think I know how to find an answer. Brianna mentioned a source that might contain the answer. I'll have to relocate her, which isn't going to be easy. For now, let's get it somewhere it won't be messed with."

"You do that, if you can," Wyatt suggested. "Apparently, I'm going to be needed here. Just don't touch it."

Chris snorted as he gave his brother a look of disbelief. His gaze went back and forth between the three young men so recently cursed by that crystal. "Are you kidding me? After what I just saw, I wouldn't dare risk it. I want to cure other victims, not infect more. And I sure don't want to . . ."

"Act like us?" Wyatt asked, finishing the sentence as his brother trailed off.

Chris sighed. "Pretty much."

"Well, it didn't affect Nathan until he made physical contact with the crystal," Wyatt informed him, thinking back to what had happened early that morning. "So don't touch it and you should be safe, but keep that antidote close. I don't want my little brother getting cursed."

Chris nodded and grabbed up the box and orbed out with it.

Nathan stared at the empty space where Chris had been stunned. "This is going to take a lot of getting used to."

"Can I trust you to keep this a secret?" Wyatt asked.

Nathan nodded.

Wyatt handed over his cell phone. "Call your wife. Andrew and I are going to see if we can let people in. Kelly apparently decided to take advantage of the silence, so she won't be a problem. Olivia wants answers and I don't want to talk to her again until I have something to say to her." He frowned. "Actually, Andrew, you get to try the doors. I need to return a cell phone."

Andrew looked at him surprised. "What for?"

"In case you forgot," Wyatt reminded him, "Nathan broke mine. I borrowed one from the accountant auditing Lauren."

"Did he get infected?"

Wyatt shook his head. "He's fine. I think his sister would have killed me if anything had happened to him."

"You're afraid of his sister," Andrew snorted.

"You _know_ his sister," Nathan added amused.

Wyatt groaned. "A few minutes ago you were ready to kill each other or at least yourselves."

"Not ever," Nathan protested.

"Fine, Andrew was," Wyatt shrugged. "The point is, now you're ganging up on me."

"Is there something to gang up about?" Nathan asked with a grin.

"I hardly know the girl," Wyatt protested, not sure how this got out of hand. "Look, I need to return this phone. I'll see you guys later."

Nathan watched with amazement at Wyatt orbed out. When the last orb bubbles were gone he turned to Andrew. "As soon as I call Lacey you are going to tell me how it is that you aren't surprised by any of this."

"Not surprised?" Andrew chuckled at him. "I'm dumbfounded. I won't deny I know some things about magic, but I've never seen it before. Be glad Wyatt is magical or we might all have been dead by now."

Nathan nodded. "I guess. I don't want to think about that." He flipped open his phone and started dialing his wife's cell.

Andrew didn't wait for him to finish dialing. He headed out of the room and shut the door behind him. His eyes slid closed as he slid down the wall on to the floor. "Has it started? Was this about Wyatt? Or was it about me?"

* * *

Nathan took that well, don't you think? He's still kind of in a state of shock, but he's had a lot of time to think while actively ignoring the voices in his head (most of the time). It was one of the things that kept him distracted.

Andrew's got a lot to think about. He knew about magic, but what does his last line tell you?

Wyatt doesn't particularily want to be left behind, but his absense would be noticed.

Chris has more to do. Seth told Nick they would help out his friends. Chris knows Reggie Hollis since he worked for him, but how will the other two react to a complete stranger claiming to have the cure they have wanted for so long?

The next chapter is . . . different. Let's just say I usually let my characters stay in humanoid form.


	6. Chain of Command

First a thank you to my reviewers:

weiliya - He is . . . oh wait, I want you to guess. However, you will get a pretty good idea by the end of this episode. He is from an episode out of season one of Charmed. I chose his first name, but the last name is purely from Charmed. I'm not sure this next chapter is going to help you much with the mystery factor.

Soraya - You will learn more about Andrew in time. And by "in time" I mean before the end of this episode. In the mean time I will give you some hints. Andrew was mentioned in season one of Charmed, though never seen. Technically he was in the episode, but . . . that's getting pretty technical. When he was mentioned, it was not by name. I chose his first name, but his last name is from Charmed (so all you have to do is find out in what episode of season one there was a character who shares his last name).

For those of you wondering about Andrew, there will be details in chapter twenty (I think . . . .the numbers got messed up). If you don't know who he is after that chapter, then just let me know and I will make it very clear after that chapter.

In this chapter you get to see Brianna and one of her friends, Max (the one her cousin thinks she should date), again. You also get to meet one of Max's many siblings and learn a little bit about what Snake Demons are like. Brianna helped Chris find the potion ingredients, but she wants to deal with something else, too.

* * *

Chapter Six - Chain of Command

A snake had wound its way around Max Keegan's body. Instead of looking scared or even concerned, he looked annoyed. He swayed back and forth until both he and the snake went tumbling over.

The snake's hold loosened just enough to allow Max to slam an elbow into the snake's coiled body. The snake let out a rather unsnakelike squeal.

The air around Max shimmered and he vanished from the snake's coil. He reappeared several feet away grinning. "Nice try, River." He waved his hand in a circle and the snake transformed into a muscular, dark haired man. "You almost had me."

"But I didn't have you," River Snow complained. "How am I supposed to gain any respect if I can't ever beat you?"

"Taking those defeats with grace might be a good start," Max suggested, ignoring the fact that he reacted with annoyance and ill temper wherever one of his friends beat him.

"I'm a demon, not a dancer," River scowled at him, flicking out his forked tongue.

"What did Irixi tell you about sticking out your tongue?" Max scolded.

"You mean before father had her vanquished for only bearing daughters?" River shot back.

Personally, Max though there was a bit more to it than Irixi's small nest of four daughters. He thought her plot to have all of her husband's older children killed and then being caught in the attempt, mostly the being caught part, had more to do with it. River knew nothing about it, because she'd been caught before she'd had a chance to attack him. That Irixi's attacks had successfully killed several of the Snake Lord's children hadn't registered with the bored, occasionally psychotic or just plain moronic, teen. He'd had other things on his mind.

Max would have been rather enjoyed testing his skills against Irixi, but it had all been just after they'd gotten back powers and so Ben had just sent her on her way. You didn't want to mess with CT Bennett when he sent you away.

River took Max's silence as unvoiced disagreement. "So you don't. How long's this last any way?" He asked referring to the magic Max had used to returned River to his human form.

"An hour unless I change you back," Max informed him.

"I'll pass," River announced looking at something over Max's shoulder. "Tell your witch girlfriend it's nothing personal," he added before he shimmered away.

Max turned around to find Brianna standing in the shadows watching him. "Your timing stinks."

Brianna walked out of the shadows and over to him. "Was it River?"

Max shook his head. "No, it wasn't River."

"You're sure?"

"He hasn't made his first kill yet," Max informed her, "so yes, I'm sure."

She nodded. "I'm glad. You seem to have a greater fondness for him then some of the others."

"When sixty-three siblings you get, you try keeping track of all of them," he retorted, seventeen of which were dead, six in the last few months. "Still they are all my brothers and sisters," he reminded her.

"Yes," she agreed, "but when was the last time you thought Beono and Naidran could be saved?"

Max rolled his eyes. "Seeing as Naidran was in prison for murder until magic came back and he could shimmer out, it's been a long time since I thought that for him. But there still is hope for Beono."

"How?" she stared at him. "And don't you dare say he hasn't made his first kill. I know better."

"There's a girl," he stated.

"And you know his mind," she retorted. "She might be a target."

"I don't," he admitted, "but Pricilla Halliwell sure seemed to."

Brianna frowned. "What were you doing using a Halliwell with her knowledge?"

"Pure coincidence, actually," he informed her with a laugh. "I was sent to fetch Beono. He's been attending college along with maybe three dozen of my other brothers and sisters, mostly to learn to blend in, most of whom are likely beyond saving." Two of whom were now dead.

"How does Pricilla fit into this?" Brianna asked impatiently.

"Right," he said, pulling himself back on topic. "She's doing a project with the girl and she was looking for her while I was looking for Beono. We found them at the same time and bumped into each other. I knocked her down."

* * *

_Max looked down at the young woman he'd knocked to the ground. His eyes widened in surprise as he recognized her as Pricilla Halliwell, middle daughter of Phoebe Halliwell. "Sorry about that," he mumbled. "I was focused on my brother. I didn't see you."_

_She gave him a rather odd look. "Beono Keegan is your brother?"_

_Max nodded. "I'm Max Keegan."_

_"Cilly Halliwell," she informed him. She gestured toward Beono and Lisa Anatole. "I'm in drama with Beono and the girl with him, Lisa."_

_"Drama?" Max chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like Beono."_

_She frowned. She ran her fingers through her long dark hair and nibbled on her lip. She looked up at him with a troubled frown. She scrunched up her nose and wiped the look off her face. "Have you met Lisa before? He's real sweet on her."_

_Max looked at her in disbelief. "That doesn't sound like my brother." And it wasn't just that brother that it didn't sound like. None of his brothers or his few adult sisters could be considered sweet on any one. It wasn't exactly an encouraged emotion._

_She shrugged. "Yeah, well, he is. I have a . . . good sense for this kind of thing."_

* * *

"Which of course she does," Max concluded, "if the rumors in the magical community are in any way true."

"Which we both know they are," Brianna reminded him with a roll of her eyes. "I need your help."

Max frowned. "Well, get someone else. I have to go after River."

"You're brother's not going anywhere, Max," she informed him. "I'm not so sure about this."

"This?"

"As if I could speak that freely in the underworld," she retorted.

Max shook his head and sighed. "Look, Brianna. I don't have time for this. Either tell me what you need my help with or else let me go after my brother. He's vulnerable to suggestion and I have a feeling his mother didn't raise him the way our father has since he arrived here."

Brianna sighed. "Do you even know what happened to her?"

Max shook his head. "One day ten years ago he showed up. Father said he was his son, and the proof is rather difficult to refute. You remember. It was two years after we met."

"Max, River isn't like Daemon," she reminded him. "Daemon's half human for starters."

"We don't know River isn't half human," Max informed her. "And that doesn't mean anything. I'm not human."

"Aka would have told us," Brianna argued.

"Would she?" Max sighed. "Look, it doesn't matter to me if he's human, demonic, or whatever. He's my brother, just like Daemon, just like Beono, and yes, just like Naidran. If I can save any of them from this, I will."

Brianna stood there silently, looking at him. She sighed.

"Well?" he asked impatiently.

She exhaled slowly. "Ben let the demons get away yesterday, but we know that's not what he wanted. I don't know exactly what happened, but I saw bloodlust in him. I could almost feel it, it was so tangible. We both know how well my powers work with the four of you."

"There is a reason we drank the blocking potion as soon as we learned what your power was," he reminded her.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Yeah, to thwart me. At any rate, the damage those demons did has been undone," _I hope_, "but the demons are still around. After what Ben . . ." She sighed. "Everything is not well with him. He's been keeping dangerous secrets from us."

Max looked at her curious.

"It doesn't matter right now," she forged on, "but he is not in a position to deal with this on his own, so I need your help. Aka's off doing who knows what, looking for some sort of answer to some sort of question that I'm not even sure what is and Toby's trying to deal with Ben."

"Bennett has issues," Max announced.

She gave him a look. "Why do you call him that? I never heard you do so until yesterday."

"It annoys him," he informed her with a shrug. "I think I will call him that from now on."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Just remember that if he actually wanted to, he could probably vanquish you in a matter of minutes, maybe even seconds."

Max shook his head. "His conscious wouldn't let him, not over something that trivial."

"People start hearing you call him that and . . ."

"All they'll here is me using the end of his name," Max informed her. "He's CT Bennett. They all know that."

"Yeah, but it's still not a good idea," she argued. "Are you coming?"

"Do you know where to find them?" he asked with a scowl. "Or what they are?"

"Yes to the first and no to the second."

"Great," his scowl grew. "I guess we've got our work cut out for us."

* * *

Max's family is different. Because I was getting lost trying to keep track of Max's huge family, I made a list of his known (to me) siblings (and their mothers). If you have any interest now (or at a later point) in figuring them out, here's a list for you:

Snake Lord (no name as of yet):  
+ Xella (Synergist demon, pronounced zel-la)  
...Max Keegan  
+ Eeshar (Snake Demon)  
...Beono Keegan (pronounced bee-ah-no)  
...Naidran Keegan  
...around 53 others  
+ unidentified Snow (she has a name and I know what she is (demon, human, darklighter, whatever else), but that's kind of a secret from the characters at present)  
...River Snow  
...unidentified Snow (again has a name, but is not known to the characters)  
+ unidentified Thompson (again, has a name, but is not known to the characters. She is human)  
...Daemon Thompson  
+ Irixi (Snake Demon, pronounced eye-ricks-ee)  
...Lyxia Keegan (pronounced licks-ee-uh)  
...Rixame Keegan (pronounced ricks-uh-may)  
...Ixiri Keegan (pronounced icks-ear-ee)  
...Xilli Keegan (pronounced zil-lee)  
+ Madaria (pronounced ma-dar-ee-a)

Seeing as this list includes a lot of made up names, I decided to give you some idea how to pronounce them. As you can tell by the unidentified on there, there are some secrets in Max's family tree. You've actually met one of those secrets, but don't try to hard to figure it out. That secret has a last name not mentioned here and is not part demon, snake or otherwise, just connected through one of the unidentified people.

And don't get too worried about so many names here, I doubt many of them will actually make it into the stories. Obviously River and Daemon get mentioned a lot when around Max and Brianna.

Brianna is perhaps the most agressive of the group when it comes to finding activities that take them away from CT, Toby, and Aka's home. She's not the most physically agressive, but she get's very bored where most of her friends live. She's also the only one that actually grew up on earth.

In the next chapter, Seth and Peter decide to return to tell Nick what's going on. Can you imagine being told that someone has a cure for your best friends after over two decades?


	7. A Time to Wait

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - That means I'm doing a good job with them.

Nick is his usual abrasive self until he realizes these guys might actually be able to help his friends.

* * *

Chapter Seven - A Time to Wait

Peter Silberman unclipped his seatbelt as Seth pulled the car to a stop in front of Nick Martinez's home. There was no question this time that Peter was going in. He had his door open before his brother had even turned off the engine.

Seth sighed. "Peter, you have to slow down."

"Or you'll what?" Peter asked, amused. "Tell Dad?"

"Maybe," Seth admitted. "You know better."

Peter shrugged and headed for the door. He knocked on it as his brother climbed out of the car.

"What do you . . ?" the annoyed question in Nick's voice ended the second her recognized the two brothers. "You're back."

Seth nodded.

"I thought you had to help your friend," Nick commented confused.

"Can we come in?" Seth asked as he reached the door. "This isn't a conversation I want to have out here."

Nick nodded and stepped out of their way. "I didn't expect you to come back," he admitted.

"Well, we did," Seth informed him, unnecessarily. "We needed to talk to you, again."

"Couldn't find what you needed?" Nick scowled as he closed the door behind them. "I should have known."

Seth shook his head. "Actually, my friend's brother found everything they needed, no help from me."

"And what exactly is everything?" Nick asked, mocking back in his voice. "A time machine to stop Reggie from getting that stupid gem in the first place. Some sort of kick in the pants for Jarod's wife, so she realizes that Jarod's all talk and that he needs to talk to someone about this and that's what's making him crazy, not some suicidal tendencies. Some way for Ev to hold down a job without the voices in his head convincing him to do something that gets him fired."

Seth frowned. "No time machine, sorry. We can't affect the past, but we can affect the future. My friend's brother collected the ingredients for a cure that will make those voices go away, that will allow your friends to stop hearing them. It will be up to them to fix what has come before, but at least this will give them a chance."

"It's not . . ." Nick stopped cold. "A cure? The one mentioned in the book? Does it work?"

"It should," Seth informed him, "but I can call my friend first. By now his brother should have found a way to get it to him. His brother will be here later. We'll need your help to get the cure to your friend Jarod. We wanted to let you know what was going on, so you could quit wondering."

"I wasn't wondering," Nick protested.

"Of course you were," Seth argued. "I would if my best friend had dealt with this for as long as yours have and someone told me they were trying to fix it. I'd want to know if they had, if there was a chance to help my best friend. Seeing as my best friend was infected with this and I can't be there to help him myself, I understand something of what you are going through. I'd want to know, so I have to believe you want to know."

Nick sighed and wandered over to his couch and sank down. "A cure. A real cure." He looked up. "This isn't some sort of joke? This is real?"

Seth nodded. "Do you mind if we stay here until my friend shows up?"

"The one who was cursed?" Nick asked, furrowing his brow.

Seth shook his head with a laugh. "Na. The brother. They are both my friends. One's my best friend, but the other is my friend, too."

Nick nodded. "Will it be a while?"

"I think so," Seth decided. "When I talked to Chris he said he was going to talk to Reggie and Ev before he came over here, since he knows Reggie and I guess he knows Ev's daughter."

"Genevieve," Nick informed him. "Since you're going to be here a while, would you like to play a game. I have a bunch of board games in my closet. Before all this happened the four of us used to play a lot. Now, they don't get used as often, but I still get a chance to play with Reggie or Ev from time to time. And I've found others to play with."

"Do you have a favorite game?" Peter asked, curious about this. There weren't too many board games at their house. And there were non the few times he'd been to his mom's house.

"Not really," Nick admitted. "I just enjoy playing. Why don't you pick one? The closet's right over there."

Peter grinned and headed over to the closet.

Seth watched, amused, as his little brother opened the door and his jaw dropped at the treasure trove of games brimming from within.

* * *

In the next chapter you get a glimpse into what Wyatt and Chris were like as teenagers as Chris remembers the first time he was ever in Centennial. And Chris former boss remembers the day that Chris got himself hospitalized because he couldn't tell the difference between worry and a rupturing appendix. Smart boy, that one. You also get a glimpse at the young lady whose job Chris took over (the one David now has). You also get another glimpse at Seth's opinion of his dad's girlfriend, Peter's mom.


	8. Centennial's Boss

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - I like their friendship, too. They are both good friends to the other.

In this next chapter you get two flashbacks. The first one is from Chris' point of view and is dated . . . it's also the day that Wyatt and Seth graduated high school. It required me to cast someone who isn't exactly what she seems, but you'll learn all about that later. I had fun with this one because you get to see Wyatt before the loss of Amber (actually, before the gaining of Amber, since he didn't date her until after he was out of high school) and Chris before he was combined with the season six Chris. Not to mention a glimpse into Seth's world when he's little brother was much younger and the worst thing he had to deal with was his dad's girlfriend and you get to see something into Kali's mind when she discusses a topic near and dear to her in her round about way.

The second flashback is from Reggie's point of view. It is of the day after Amber and her sister went missing, when everyone started to realize something was wrong. And Chris had an eventful day beyond that that landed him in the hospital, but I'll let you read all about it.

Reggie is the first one of the infected friends that Chris approaches. I hope you like how I dealt with this.

* * *

Chapter Eight – Centennial's Boss

As Chris entered Centennial a wave of nostalgia hit him. He remembered the first time he'd entered the store. It had been the day of Wyatt and Seth's high school graduation. Wyatt had dragged him out of the graduation celebration almost as soon as he'd gotten out of his cap and gown.

* * *

_Monday June 7, 2021_

_Are you serious?" Kali Nicolae giggled as she pushed passed him into the store. "You've never been in here? This place is amazing."_

_Chris stared at the fourteen-year-old for a few seconds and then over her head at Wyatt. "How did she get invited?"_

_"It was her idea," Wyatt replied with a shrug. "And since I'm going to need some things for the dorm this fall I figured who not."_

_"Wyatt?" Seth asked from the doorway, a cell phone in his hand. Once the other three were looking at him he asked, "How long are we going to be here? Danielle's being nice for once and she's decided to cook a graduation dinner for me. Dad says he wants me there."_

_"Well, it_ is_ your graduation dinner," Wyatt teased._

_"Yeah, but it's Danielle," Seth protested. "I don't think she likes me too much."_

_"Haven't they been dating forever?" Kali asked her back to him as she looked at a display of some kitchen supplies. "Are they ever going to get married?" Kali's dad had disappeared before she was born and she clung to the idea that had her parents married things would have been different._

_Chris had once heard a conversation that lead him to believe demons had killed her father, so he doubted it. He let her keep her illusion that her dad was alive. Besides, what did he know if demons. They hadn't attacked since he was he less than two._

_"I kind of doubt it," Seth informed her. "Dad's asked her twice and she didn't seem interested. Besides I'm not sure I want her to marry dad."_

_"But what about Peter?" Kali persisted, looking over at him. "Danielle is his mom." Since her dad was gone her mom was the most important person in her life. The idea that a mom might be less than revered baffled her._

_"Some Mom," he retorted. "She actually lived with us for a while, but as soon as she found out she was expecting Peter she left. Dad didn't even know she was expecting."_

_Chris looked at him confused. "I thought Peter had always lived with you."_

_"Almost always," Seth amended. "She kept him for a while. He was six months old when she finally told Dad about him. It was another ten months before she decided she didn't want to deal with a toddler bumbling around. So he's been living with us for more than half his life and he'll live with us for the rest of it. She's not getting him back."_

_Wyatt chuckled. "You really haven't been paying attention, have you little brother?"_

_Chris gave him a look. "Honestly, you'd think you were so all knowing. You don't fool me."_

_Wyatt rolled his eyes. "I know more than you do."_

_"Just because you've graduated high school," Chris teased. "Time will give me that knowledge."_

_"But it will never give you the year and a half between us," Wyatt retorted._

_"Am I supposed to care?"_

_"Probably," a voice behind them announced._

_The four friends turned around to find a woman behind them. She was in her late teens to early twenties, maybe as old as her mid twenties. They couldn't be sure. On her name tag was the name "Alex". "May I help you find something?"_

_Wyatt held out his hand. "I'm looking for some furniture for my dorm in the fall."_

_She smiled. "Well, I'm Jelly and I would be happy to help you find some. Are your friends looking for furniture, too?"_

_"I'm staying home and commuting," Seth informed her, "and they're," he pointed at Chris and Kali, "too young for college yet."_

_"Jelly" smiled._

_"May I ask a question?" Chris said looking at her._

_She shrugged and nodded. "Do you need something for your home?"_

_"No," he shook his head. "It's about your nametag."_

_She laughed. "That's a long story. My name is actually Alexis Porter, but around here I'm known as Jelly."_

_"That doesn't sound long," Chris mumbled._

_"Well, no I guess it doesn't sound that way," she agreed, "but the reason behind that is quite long and . . . and not something I wish to share."_

_"Then, why doesn't your name tag say "Jelly" instead?" he asked, confused._

_"I guess because Mr. Hollis didn't think it was very professional," she informed him. She turned to look at Wyatt. "How about I show you some of that furniture you might need this fall?"_

* * *

Wyatt had grinned and let her lead them away, but even as they had walked Chris had wondered about her strange reaction. There was some story behind that name and he wanted to understand it. Chris chuckled. Almost six years later, she no longer went by "Jelly" and he still had no idea what the story was behind that name.

Chris stopped in front of a door which clearly stated "Employees Only". Of course he could easily get by it, but right now was not the time to be flaunting his thankfully reacquired ability to orb.

"Chris, is that you?" a familiar voice asked behind him.

Chris turned around. Behind him was Brian Heitzman. There was something very unusual about his connection to Brian. He'd only known Brian since the beginning of the year, but the other him had known Brian for years, something he had realized just before he quit working at Centennial. There was a massive difference between the Brian of the other time line and this one, mostly to his physical appearance, but there was enough similarity of action and personality that, now that he knew, it messed with his head.

"What brings you here today?" Brian asked. "It's been a while since we've seen you here."

"Well, I haven't had any need for furniture or kitchen utensils since I left here," Chris informed him with a shrug.

"So you need an excuse to come see us, huh?" Brian teased. "Then, what brings you here today?"

"Actually I need to talk to Mr. Hollis," Chris admitted, "but I kind of forgot about the lockout for all non employees. Would you mind going in there and seeing if Mr. Hollis will come out and see me?"

Brian chuckled. He pulled out his swipe card and ran in through the scanner on the card. The door beeped and the little light on the door handle turned from red to green. He turned the handle and waited as it was scanned. Once they heard another beep Brian pushed open the door and stuck his head inside. "Hey, Ms. Walz, any objections to Chris coming in?"

Apparently he received a negative, because he pushed the door all the way opened and indicated for Chris to enter. "Knock yourself out and don't forget to say 'hi' on your way out."

Chris grinned at him and entered the room, shutting the door behind him. He smiled at Naomi Walz, Mr. Hollis' receptionist. "Is Mr. Hollis in?"

"Here for your job back?" she teased.

He shook his head, good naturedly. "Na, David's welcome to that. I'm enjoying working for my mom."

"What brings you here then?"

"Just some personal business I might be able to help the boss with."

She raised twin eyebrows. "In other words, don't ask."

"Take it how you like it," Chris replied, unconcerned. "Is he in?"

"Let me go see if he'll see you," she suggested as she stood and headed into Mr. Hollis' office. She was gone less than a minute before she reentered and nodded him in. "Mr. Hollis will see you."

Chris smiled at her as he entered Mr. Hollis' office.

Mr. Hollis looked up from some papers as Chris closed the door. "Naomi said you wanted to see me, Chris."

Chris nodded and walked up to the desk. "How have you been, Mr. Hollis?"

"Well enough, I suppose," Mr. Hollis replied.

Chris wondered if he imagined the sad tone in his former boss' voice.

"Have a seat," Mr. Hollis invited with a wave of his hand.

Chris shook his head. "No, thank you. I need to ask you a question."

Mr. Hollis waited expectantly.

"Why didn't you destroy the Aphrodite Crystal?" Chris asked watching his former boss' face carefully.

He wasn't disappointed. The shock couldn't be hidden fast enough. The fright that followed was also quickly hidden. Anger and suspicion followed that. "What do you know about the Aphrodite Crystal?"

"I know it's never going to bother anyone ever again," Chris informed him. He might not have found a way to destroy it or to neutralize it, but he would and until he could, he wasn't going to let anyone near it.

Suspicion warred with hope. His voice was softer as he asked again, "What do you know about that?"

"I know that the Crystal showed up at my brother's work early this morning," Chris informed him. "And I know that the four people affected by it have been cured."

"You can't know that," Mr. Hollis protested. "No, one knows how to find the cure."

"I have resources you would have a lot of trouble accessing," Chris countered. "Would you like the cure, Mr. Hollis?"

Mr. Hollis gulped and stared at Chris, uncertainty clear on his face. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"Search your mind," Chris suggested. "Think back over the year that you've known me. Would I lie to you?"

Mr. Hollis hesitated. His mind went back to one day the previous summer.

* * *

_Reggie directed Rose Laughlin, his newest employee, past one of the front registers._

_Jody Powell, the daughter of his friend, Jarod Powell, waved at them. He sometimes felt sad when he saw her, knowing it was his fault she didn't have a father around, because it was his fault that Jarod had gone mad._

_"Who's that?" Rose asked, a smile in her voice._

_"Jody," Reggie informed her. "You'll meet her later. Right now I want you to meet Alex. She's my assistant manager." He led the way down the hall and knocked on a door and pushed it open. "Alex, this is . . ." he stopped and frowned._

_The name plate on the door as well as the one on the desk said "Alexis Owens", but the person at the desk was Chris Halliwell. A phone was held next to his ear and his eyes were on them._

_"Chris, what are you doing in here?" Reggie asked. "And where is Alex?"_

_Chris nibbled on his bottom lip and frowned. "Hi, Mr. Hollis."_

_Reggie gave Chris a look._

_Chris looked a little uncomfortable. "My brother called and Alex said I could use her phone in here. Then, Josh showed up and she decided to leave early."_

_Reggie sighed. "I see. I'll deal with Alex later. Why couldn't your brother wait until you get off to call you?"_

_"Amber didn't get home last night," Chris informed him. "And no one's at her sister's home. Wyatt's worried about her, about both of them really."_

_Reggie recognized the name of Chris' brother's girlfriend. He'd met her a few times and found her to be a nice girl. "I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm sure they'll show up soon. Finish you phone call quickly and return to work."_

* * *

That should have been that, but Chris had informed him that he was really worried about Amber. He said he didn't think he could finish out the day. Reggie had insisted that he stay there. He'd already had one employee leave early without permission.

As it turned out, Chris literally couldn't finish the day, but it hadn't been the missing Alden sisters that had caused problems for him. It had been a rupturing appendix. How Chris mixed the pain of a rupturing appendix for feelings of worry Reggie hadn't a clue even now, but hearing him talk about the Aphrodite Crystal like this made Reggie think there was a lot more to that story then he could imagine.

Anyone who knew what the Aphrodite Crystal was capable of making one think or do would run scared. Well, anyone except Ev, Jarod, and Nick and they had done it for him. Only Nick had come out of it without voices in his head and sometimes Reggie wasn't so sure of that. He had an idea that while Nick didn't hear the voices the rest of them heard, Nick was haunted by the voices of the past, of how different the other three were before Reggie made the stupid mistake of going after the Aphrodite Crystal.

"Tell me about your brother's girl friend," Reggie instructed Chris suddenly.

"Huh?" Chris looked at him as if he hadn't heard him right.

"The one who's missing," Reggie directed.

As if there was any other. "What's that have to do with this?"

"You said you won't lie to me, so tell me about her."

Chris stared at him confused. "But what? She's missing. It's been months and there's no sign of her or her sister. We don't _know_ anything."

"But you suspect something," Reggie pushed. "I saw it that day last year when she went missing. You suspect something."

Chris exhaled slowly, trying to remember what he might have been thinking that day. He'd received the phone call from his brother about Amber and Molly and while he was still on the phone his appendix had ruptured. It had been a bad day over all. "I don't know," he admitted. He slumped into the chair he had previously refused. "I don't know. She wouldn't have left, not of her free will," Chris informed his former boss. "I'm not even the one that got left behind," he mumbled. "I'm the one who had to pick up the pieces. Wyatt was completely berserk there for a while. At first he expected every phone call to be her, calling to say she'd gotten lost or something and then as days past buy he became certain that she was dead, that her body was at the bottom of some ditch somewhere. I'm not sure what he expected to happen if he wore himself out checking and double checking every inch of San Francisco."

Chris gulped. "He ever pushed her brother up against a wall once having decided that her family was hiding her from him. I can't imagine James Alden was too happy about that. He's freaked out about his sisters and Wyatt's accusing him of hiding them."

Reggie listened. It appeared to him that Chris needed someone to talk to about this. Reggie wasn't really learning anything that could help him gauge if Chris really had a cure for the Aphrodite Crystal. It was so easy to be hopeful, but he'd learned not to easily trust in hope.

Chris looked up at Reggie. "After that he just lost all interest in anything except work. It's only been in the last few months since magic . . ." Chris froze and looked at Reggie. He sighed. "Magic. That's how I know about the Crystal, how I am able to have a cure, because of magic, real magic. The curse was made by magic and that was the only way to fix it."

Reggie looked at Chris surprised, but thinking about it, he supposed that made sense in a weird way.

"Magic brought my brother back," Chris informed him, thinking of the change that had come over his brother. It had been weeks before Wyatt even remembered to think about Amber, or at least to mention her to anyone. Before magic had returned everyone had been very careful not to mention Amber to Wyatt and even now as Wyatt was beginning to mention her on his own that continued. They didn't want him to return to the way he had been for those first few months. Chris didn't think he would. As much as magic returning had been good for Wyatt, Chris wasn't so sure how good it had been for him. "But it lost me."

"What?" Reggie looked at him very confused.

"Magic made Wyatt focus on something besides his sorrows and his fears," Chris explained, "but it also turned me into someone I'm not. For the rest of my life I have to deal with someone else's memories. Sometimes I approve of what he did and sometimes I don't, but I am still trying to learn how to keep it from controlling who I am." He looked at Reggie. "That's not what you wanted to know, though."

Reggie nodded slowly. It wasn't originally, but this was more interesting.

"It all goes back to the same source though," Chris informed him. "Magic, demons, innocent people needing protection, people like you and your friends." Chris stopped and looked at his former boss. "Mr. Hollis?"

"Reggie," Reggie corrected. "You don't work for me anymore."

"Right," Chris returned skeptically. "Mr. Hollis, I don't feel comfortable continuing this conversation. I want to help you, Mr. Hollis, but there are things I just can't tell you." He sighed. "The cure's not going away. You're not getting worse, I don't think, so I'll quit bothering you." He stood from the chair and gave Reggie a sad look. "You know how to find me if you change your mind." He turned away and walked to the door.

"Wait," Reggie requested as Chris turned the knob.

Chris turned around and looked at him.

"Give me the cure," he requested.

_Good, _Chris smiled as he let go of the doorknob. _I want to help you._ He returned his face to normal as he turned around. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the small bottles Piper had put the doses in. He put it down on the desk in front of Reggie. Then, he walked over to a small fridge in the wall and pulled out a water bottle. "You'll want to drink this after you finish with the cure. It smells nasty and everyone who's had it so far agrees that it tastes as bad as it smells."

"You haven't had any?"

Chris shook his head. "I wasn't infected. The Crystal showed up at my brother's work. That's where people were infected. I managed to avoid touching anyone while they were infected, so I'm fine."

Reggie picked up the bottle and unscrewed the lid. He took a whiff of it and shuddered. "What did you put in there? Horse dung?"

_Moss, mud, horn dust, but not horse dung. _Chris shook his head. "Nothing like that."

Reggie took the bottle of water from Chris and sighed. He picked up the bottle with the potion and gulped it down as fast as he could. Then, he grabbed the bottle of water and started glugging it down. As he did this green bubbles began to work their way down his body.

Chris broke out into a broad grin.

Reggie stopped drinking the water and gave Chris a look. "What's with the . . ?" A stunned look crossed his face as the green smoke drifted unnoticed from beneath the desk. "Incredible," Reggie pronounced stunned. "I haven't felt like this in years." He smiled and then he gave Chris a curious look. "That was real."

Chris chuckled. "You still didn't believe me?"

Reggie shrugged. "I'll try anything to get rid of this so long as I'm sure it won't kill me." He grinned. "And now I don't have to try anything ever again. Thank you."

Chris shook his head amused. "How about thanking me by backing me up if I call and ask you to tell one of your friends that this works? I've got a dose for each of them. Would you mind?"

"Mind?" Reggie looked at him incredulous. "They're my best friends. I want to help them."

With a grin on his face Chris headed for the door. He had another stop to make before he joined Seth and Peter.

* * *

I must say, there is something annoyingly perverse about me, because I enjoy torturing my characters. For the next chapter and other related chapters I had to create a new type of demon, a way to vanquish them, and I actually created a book of shadows page, with complete text.


	9. Biology

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - Yep. I've tried drawing it, but so far that has gone less than well. I know what I want it to look like, but it's not coming out the way I want it to. The test of the page will be in an upcoming chapter, though.

In this chapter not only do you learn a great deal about Max, but so does Brianna. He doesn't like to talk about his Synergist half. There is a definite flaw in his logic.

* * *

Chapter Nine – Biology

Max stared across the field at the two demons. There was something familiar about them. He hadn't noticed when he had been trying to follow them, but now that they weren't shimmering all over the place he had an uneasy feeling that he wasn't going to like what he learned.

Next to him Brianna was trying to focus on them, but her powers didn't seem to be doing much good. "They're so confusing," she whispered. "It's like they are bouncing their emotions back and forth between them. It's a rather weird sensation."

"It's a good thing I took that blocking potion in January," Max mumbled resigned to what he knew had to be true.

"Huh?" Brianna looked at him surprised. "What has that to do with this?"

He sighed, unsure how to explain it. He didn't really want to explain, but there seemed to be no other way.

"Max?" she looked at him concerned. "You're worrying me. What do they have to do with the blocking potion?"

"Actually, it would have been good if you had taken one," he commented. "They'll be able to track you, but it's way too late to worry about that now."

"Track me?" She looked at him confused.

He nodded. "They can track emotions."

"Does this have anything to do with the underworld tracking the infamous CT Bennett?" she asked in a mocking whisper.

Max rolled his eyes. "Of course not. They have nothing to do with Ben." He scowled. "They're Synergists."

Brianna blinked and looked at him surprised. "So that's what this is," she whispered, recognizing the name. "They're family."

"No, of course not," Max disagreed instantly. Not that it mattered much. "Just because they are of the same species as my mother does not make them family."

"Then, I still don't understand," Brianna admitted. "They tried to kill that girl."

"She has a name you know," Max reminded her, trying to get her off the subject of his much unloved mother.

"Well, Ben didn't say which girl," Brianna argued.

He'd told Max. "The youngest one. Pearl, I think." He'd known it was the one argument that could stop Max's every disagreement, but now that he knew they were Synergists it was a lot more complicated than his friend had realized.

"But you understand why we can't let them continue on," she pressed.

"They are no longer a threat, Brianna," Max disagreed. Not to Pearl Halliwell there weren't. No, the threat wasn't to her now. Now, he was the one in danger.

"I don't understand," she whispered confused. "If we don't they'll hurt someone else."

"They're in hiding, Brianna," he argued. "They aren't planning to hurt anyone."

"You don't know that."

"You don't understand the Synergists, Brianna," he disagreed. "They're . . . different then other demons."

Brianna frowned. "Then, tell me what I need to know. You keep that part of you quiet. We know all about your father's side, but you never even mention the Synergists."

"That's because it's too dangerous," he admitted.

"To talk about them?" she asked in a slightly amused whisper. "Honestly, Max, it's not as if they are going to lock you away for mentioning them."

"Maybe not," he admitted, "but at the same time when you're one of them you don't want to anger them, especially if you are only half Synergists. I can't fight back."

"Fight back?" she queried. "But what can they do?"

A disembodied hand grabbing her by the leg and pulling her down answered her question. The sound of Brianna crying out shocked Max into action. He may have wanted to avoid this confrontation, but that was no longer an option. He shimmered out and reappeared behind the two Synergists. The air around him shimmered as he transformed into a large snake.

Brianna scrambled up. She pulled a potion out of an invisible belt she'd enchanted for use. She threw it at the demon that Max wasn't fighting with.

To her shock the demon froze.

"They're lower level!" she demanded of the coiled form of Max as he squeezed the second demon.

He turned his snake head toward her and flicked out his tongue. It was an odd thing to see his head wag back and forth in a negative.

Brianna sighed as pulled a potion out of a different spot on her belt. She needed Max in humanoid form so she could get complete answers from him.

The Synergist unfroze and lashed out a disembodied hand at Brianna.

Max lashed out his tail in the air between the Synergist and its hand.

Brianna blinked in surprise as it caused the hand to drop down and recoil at its owner. A grin popped onto her face. "Invisible forces in the air; show yourself, we'll see you here. Demonic forces to hide the truth; allow us to see you beneath this roof."

Max squeezed the demon within his grasp tightly enough to knock it out. He let go and returned to his humanoid form.

Brianna watched amazed as extra limbs appeared all over the two demons. She turned a glance at Max. "You?"

He shook his head with a slight grin. "Nope."

"Still."

He chuckled.

"Ideas?" she asked as she dodged one of those extra limbs. She was knocked off balance a moment later by a second limb coming at her and fell to the ground.

One of the extra limbs wacked Max in the back hard enough to knock him down before he could answer. He heaved in a breath before he pushed himself back to his feet.

Brianna rolled over and jumped to her feet. "Not what I meant."

Max chuckled some more as he dodged another limb. It was immediately followed by another that split the air between the two and rammed into the wall behind them, getting stuck.

"Don't touch it," Max directed her.

"Problem?"

"Electricity," he informed her as he ran toward the limb crackling with electricity. He took half a second to savor the startled look that crossed the Synergist's face before he shifted his body back into that of a snake.

The Synergist started shooting limbs at Max, unsure what his intention was, but sure it wasn't good. He ignored Brianna all together as he tried to stop Max's progress, shooting limbs at Max which were all avoided with ease.

Brianna felt fear emanating from the Synergist to the point where it immobilized her. The demon was terrified.

Max slithered along, dodging the limbs, trying to stop him with speed that was almost a blur.

Brianna couldn't move, the fear coming from the demon overwhelming her. She couldn't even see what was happening, it was so fast.

As Max slithered toward the Synergist at lightning fast speeds he ran electricity through his torso, rapidly building it up to deadly levels. A Synergist could kill another Synergist, but it was at the cost of their life. Being only half Synergist Max couldn't predict the result.

He shot his electrically charged body into the air and wrapped it tightly around the limb still stuck in the wall. Even as the demon finally managed to dislodge the extra arm and try to escape, Max just coiled tighter and tighter, pulling the demon at him.

Brianna forced the Synergist's fear and her own to the back of her mind. She still didn't know what Max was up to, but she could see the sparks rising from the two combatants and she could see the second synergist beginning to stir.

She reached into her belt to grab a potion just as an explosion emanated from where Max and the Synergist were fighting. It filled the entire cavern, slamming Brianna into the cavern wall, knocking her unconscious as blood began to seep out a wound in her head.

* * *

Clearly, I was not being too nice to them when I wrote that chapter, but it was something that was more or less planned. The "more" being what happened to Max. The "less" being what happened to Brianna. I am, however, quite satisfied with the results of this chapter and the connecting ones that follow. However, it's now time to go to Nick's place where Seth and Peter are waiting and Peter's being a kid . . . enjoying besting his big brother in something.

Since neither Wyatt nor Chris thought to call Seth . . . they're about to get the first news any of them has gotten on how the potion worked.


	10. Phone Calls

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Soraya - I love your reaction. It means that you like my characters that much. I'm afraid I am going to keep you in suspense for a while, so if you want to find out if Max and Brianna survived, you'll just have to keep reading. Chapter twelve will answer who survived that battle. Be happy though, this next chapter was initially going to be three chapters, so it was going to in chapter fourteen that you found out. I think you've read my IF rewrite (thus far), so if you recall in the later chapters Chris killed Aka, one of Max and Brianna's friends, and then when Toby found her body, Chris tried to kill him and ended up kill Max and mortally wounding CT. I'm going to try and show what happens next in that story soon, but right now I'm just very focused on the story following this. If I get past episode nineteen and still haven't finished (which I hope will not be the case, I love that story and hope everyone will enjoy how I finish it out).

In the next chapter there's a lot of chatter going on. Between the various parts of this chapter are five phone conversations. I keep hearing people predicting things. If you think you can predict anything out of this chapter, I'd be curious to see if it's the same thing as another reader did.

* * *

Chapter Ten – Phone Calls

"I win!" Peter exclaimed to the amusement of his brother and their host. He shot his arm up and standing, did a little victor dance.

Seth laughed. "Congratulation, little brother."

Nick opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as his phone rang. He stood and walked over to the wall phone. He grabbed it up. "Hello?"

"Hi, Nick," Reggie said from the other side of the phone.

"Reggie, hi," Nick replied a frown in his voice. "You sound different."

"Well, I feel wonderful," Reggie informed him. "I haven't felt this good in years."

Nick looked across the room at the two brothers.

"Someone I knew found a cure, Nick."

Nick grinned at that. "So it worked."

"You knew?"

Nick's grin grew. "Actually they came to me for advice. I wasn't able to give them a whole lot, but I think I helped some."

"I should think so," Reggie laughed, "with all the data you've collected over the years. I think he's going over to see Ev, but all he did before he left was ask for my help in convincing one of my friends if they needed it. I figure if he knows that much he has to be heading for Ev or Jarod and we both know getting in to see Jarod isn't easy."

Nick chuckled, drawing the attention of the two brothers across the room. "You've got that right."

"Well, I only called to tell you that I was cured," Reggie admitted. "I know, despite how often we've all told you not to, you've felt guilty for not getting cursed and I wanted you to know the end was nearing, but I guess you already knew that."

Nick smiled. "I knew what they were planning, yes, but until you called I didn't know it was working."

"Well, I'll talk to you later," his friend informed him. "I have to get back to work. One of my employees just entered the room and I need to see what she wants."

Nick chuckled as he hung up the phone.

Peter looked at his brother. "He sounds nicer," he whispered for only his brother's ears.

"Sounds like he got good news," Seth whispered back.

"You're friend's been busy," Nick informed them.

Seth started to say something and then changed his mind as the relevance of that statement took full hold. "I've got to call Wyatt."

"Huh?" Peter looked at him confused. "How'd you come to that conclusion?"

"If his friends are calling him," Seth informed his little brother as he pulled out his cell, "then that means Chris has finished with Wyatt's work. I've got to see if he's all right." Remembering that Wyatt hadn't been using his phone, he searched through his phone directory for another number.

Chris answered the phone quickly. "Sorry, I didn't call. I've been kind of busy."

"No problem as long as everyone is all right," Seth informed him, despite that it did bother him.

"Yeah, they're fine," Chris assured him. "Wyatt's still at work. He had to stay there to avoid suspicion."

"Suspicion?" Seth frowned at the word.

"The police got called," Chris admitted. "That kind of thing tends to happen when a major museum is closed without warning and without letting most of the employees know."

Seth sighed. "I guess." He glanced down at brother and then across the room at Nick. "Look, when you talked to Wyatt earlier it wasn't on his phone, was it?"

"Right," Chris agreed. "The phone belongs to an accountant who was in the building today. He's also Emily's older brother. . . You remember her, right?"

"Sure, the little blonde girl that was giving you the hives a few weeks ago."

Chris scowled as he looked at the building in front of him. "She was not giving me the hives. I was just worried about her potentially exposing magic."

"And now?"

"Now, I'm pretty sure that's not an issue, but I'm worried she might get too involved in all this and get herself hurt or worse."

Seth bit back a chuckle. "Well, I'll let you deal with that. I just wanted the number so I can call Wy."

"Can do," Chris agreed. "You'll listen to me, eventually."

Seth brushed him off. "The number?"

Chris chuckled as he looked through his phone for the number. "Ready?"

Seth grabbed a scrap of paper off a nearby table. There was also a pencil, so he grabbed that. "Ready when you are."

* * *

Wyatt was in the hall headed toward Lauren's office with the borrowed cell phone, when that phone started ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID. No name was listed, but he recognized the number. "Hi, Seth. How's Peter?"

"Having fun playing board games with a new friend," Seth informed him before adding wryly, "He seems to enjoy learning about magic more than he does spending time with me."

"Not true!" Wyatt heard Peter's voice call out in the background.

He chuckled. "Sounds like your brother disagrees."

Seth grinned. "He's probably just humoring me, but I love him for it."

"So why'd you call?"

"I wanted to see for myself that you were all right," Seth admitted. "This has been a day I'd rather not repeat . . . at least the parts about worrying about you." He grinned over at his brother. "I imagine I'll have to make it up to Peter that we didn't stay home today."

"I'm good," Wyatt heard Peter's voice announce.

Wyatt grinned, but chose not to comment this time. "Well, I'm feeling very good. I'm not really sure how I'm going to handle Nathan knowing about magic, or how it will change things, and I'm even less sure what to think of the fact that Andrew already knows about magic . . ."

"He already know?" Seth interrupted. "How?"

"I'm not sure yet," Wyatt admitted, "but I will be getting an answer from him later." He groaned as he remembered who else was going to be demanding an answer.

"What's wrong?"

"I just remembered that I'm going to have to figure out a way to explain this all to Olivia," he muttered. "I don't have a clue what I am going to tell her." He stopped in front of Lauren's office. "I have to return this phone now, so don't call this number unless you want to talk to a complete stranger."

Seth chuckled. "The main point was to hear for myself that you were fine, so talk to you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Danielle is still coming over tonight," he reminded Wyatt, "so yeah, tomorrow." He paused a moment before commenting, "but call me if you need my help." He chuckled, "I have a feeling that Peter wouldn't mind another detour."

"Will do," Wyatt agreed. "Bye."

Once Wyatt had hung up, he knocked on the door. He waited in silence for a response from inside. When there was none, he knocked, again. "Mr. Colson, are you in there?"

Inside the room, Nate Colson looked at the door wearily. He recognized the voice as belonging to his sister's friend from earlier. He remained silent.

"Nate, would you please let me in," Wyatt requested as he knocked, again.

Nate took a few steps away from the window and asked, "How's the girl?"

_Girl?_ Wyatt thought confused. A smile tugged as his lips as he realized, _Oh, Olivia._ "She's good, completely cured."

"Are you sure?" Nate asked cautiously.

"Yeah," Wyatt was quick to assure him. "We found an antidote."

"It was some sort of poison," Nate asked curiously.

"Something like that," Wyatt agreed, slightly amused. It was as good an explanation as any other. "Can I come in?"

"No," Nate decided instantly, "you said not to let anyone in."

"I said not to let anyone other than me in," Wyatt argued.

"You also said you were infected by this virus," Nate reminded him.

"I was," Wyatt agreed. "I've taken the antidote, too and I'm fine now."

"How can I trust that?" Nate wanted to know.

"Earlier you didn't want to trust me that something was wrong," he was reminded.

"That was before the crazy girl tried to get in here," Nate informed him.

"She wasn't crazy, just," Wyatt paused, looking for the right word, "delusional."

"Close enough," Nate decided.

Wyatt sighed. "I'm just here to return your phone. If you want to lock yourself back in after that, go right ahead."

"How do I know this isn't a trick?"

"Because I wouldn't want anyone to experience what I was earlier," Wyatt assured him. "If it helps, I promise not to touch you or anything in the room."

"Maybe," Nate hedged, clearly thinking about it.

"Your family will want to know you're all right," Wyatt reminded him. He could tell Nate was about to give in.

Nate sighed, know Wyatt was right. "Fine. I'll open the door." He frowned at the closed door. "You're sure it's safe?"

"Yes," Wyatt announced. He was sure of that. He trusted the potion his mom had made and he had not heard any thoughts other than his own since he'd taken it. And then there was the whole green bubble field. The evidence was massive that the potion had worked exactly as they had hoped.

There was the sound of footsteps as Nate walked toward the door. Instead of just opening it part way, he opened it fully and looked at Wyatt. "You look sane."

Wyatt blinked. "What exactly does an insane person look like?"

Nate chuckled. "Good point. "You said you were returning my phone?"

Wyatt nodded and held it out. "You'll find a couple unfamiliar numbers on it. I talked to my mom, my brother, and my best friend."

"I didn't expect you to stick to people in my address book," Nate retorted. "Are the doors opened now?"

"My brother says so," Wyatt informed him. "I haven't tried them myself."

"Then, the woman whose office this is will be in soon?"

"Perhaps. I'm not sure she knows it's open yet."

"And the police?"

"You noticed those?"

Nate nodded. "What do they want?"

"Not sure," Wyatt admitted. "I think maybe they think this was a hostage situation."

"Was it?"

Wyatt frowned. He sighed as he said, "Not in the normal way. I'm pretty sure whoever did this is long gone."

"I see." He held out his hand. "I trust that having my phone was helpful to you in finding this antidote."

"I'm not sure about that," Wyatt admitted, "but it did help reassure those who were looking for that antidote."

"Your mom, brother, and best friend?" Nate asked in response.

"Or someone who was working with them," Wyatt agreed. "I haven't actually asked for many details. I was busy keeping those of us here from killing ourselves."

"Suicide?" Nate asked, concerned. "Did you . . ?"

"No," Wyatt assured him. "The virus, poison, whatever, does lead ones thoughts in that direction, but I did not attempt that."

Nate heaved out a sigh. "I see. Well, I'm glad my phone could help."

"It did," Wyatt admitted. "Talking to my brother at one point might well have helped keep me sane." He handed back the phone. "Thanks for its use."

Nate took his phone and opened it up. "I'm going to call my brother and sister now and hope they didn't tell my parents anything about this."

Wyatt chuckled. "I know all about trying to keep parents from worrying. Mine have more reason than most to do so."

"Oh?" Nate looked at him, concerned.

"Nothing for you to worry about," Wyatt tried to assure him.

Nate shook his head. "It is if it will affect my sister. Will is?"

"I can't see how it will," Wyatt informed him, hoping he was right. "She works for my family. And perhaps she is becoming a friend to my brother, but that friendship of itself is not dangerous, I don't think."

Nate sighed, relaxing a little. "Thanks. I'd better make those calls before my brother gets it into his mind to call our parents, if he hasn't already."

"I'll leave you to that, then," Wyatt replied as he headed back into the hall.

Nate watched him leave before he started the call to his brother.

Matt Colson was quick to answer the phone. "Where is my brother?" he demanded.

Nate grinned. "I take it, you've talked to Wyatt."

Matt sighed. "He claimed you lent him your phone. That didn't sound like you."

"Let me guess," Nate said with a chuckle. "You hung up on him."

"Good guess," Matt admitted.

"Not really," Nate mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Nate was quick to claim.

Matt chose to ignore the lack of answer. "So this Wyatt, is he dangerous for Em?"

"I told you already," Nate announced impatiently, "he's not insane. As to dangerous . . . I can't say, but I think she's probably safe with him and his brother."

Matt relaxed. "All right. I'll leave Em alone then."

"She'll appreciate that," Nate informed his brother with a laugh.

"It's an older brother's job," Matt pronounced.

Nate laughed. "Speaking as her other older brother . . ."

Matt joined him. "Everything okay over there now?"

"Yeah, I've still got a little bit of work to finish up here," Nate informed him, "but I don't think these are going to be the last accounts I do here."

Matt snorted. "In other words, someone's stealing, but it's not the person you are auditing."

"You know I can't answer that."

"Whatever," Matt chuckled. "Talk to you later. Dinner tonight?"

"I'll pass," Nate said quickly.

"It'll just be the four of us. I promise."

Nate sighed. "I have nothing in common with those two any more."

"Except a lot of good times in school," Matt retorted. "Come on."

"Mom wants me over tonight," Nate informed him. "So it's not really an option."

"Which means I'll be getting a call soon enough," Matt concluded with a sigh. "I'll get off and call her myself."

"Sounds smart."

"Yeah, until she starts asking questions about my laundry or some subject even less desirable," Matt retorted.

Nate chuckled. After he said his good-byes to his older brother, he dialed in the number for his sister.

* * *

Still sitting on her car outside, Emily pulled out her cell. She didn't bother checking the ID. "Emily."

"Hey, little sister," Nate smiled. "Any idea what Mom's planning for tonight?"

"Does that mean I can come in?" she asked ignoring his question.

"It's still employees only," he informed her with a laugh.

"Pity," she decided as she plopped off her car. "Meet me in the lobby and I'll bring you something to eat."

"Can you get in?"

Emily glanced across the parking lot at the police still directed the crowd away from the building. They appeared to be entering the building, which was progress she supposed, but it didn't appear they would be letting anyone else in any time soon. She sighed. "Yeah, probably not. I guess I'd better head to work. Mrs. Halliwell told me I could be skip the day because of all this, but it's still a Friday night, so they'll probably want me there. Come over to The Manor when you get off work, okay?"

"Aren't we supposed to eat at the house tonight?"

Emily chuckled. "Na uh. _We_ aren't. _You and Matt_ are. Have fun with that. I'll see you later, okay."

* * *

Inside the building, Nate close his phone, a smile on his lips. It had been a strange day, but thankfully the worst of it seemed to be over. He no longer wondered if he would make it through the day and that of itself was a huge improvement.

He walked back over to the desk and went back to comparing the info in her computer to what he'd been given to start with. Admittedly, he'd gone into this with the preconceived notion that she was innocent of whatever was going on. Not too many people handed over their passwords and didn't show up before he did. By tomorrow he imagined all those passwords would be changed, but this woman clearly didn't care too much what he saw, which inclined him to trust her. Nothing he had come across had led him to believe otherwise.

He'd be done soon and come Monday he'd be back at it with a different employee's records. Based on what he'd seen today, he expected that one to go much the same . . . minus terrifying half crazed people trying to get in and kill him. At the same time he looked forward to the challenge of seeing if there was anything in that computer that would tell him more about his sister's new friends. Wyatt Halliwell had better not be hiding anything, because if he was, Nate intended to find it.

* * *

Nate's still got work to do in this building, because someone is up to something and it's his job to find out who. If/when he finds something you'll find out.

In the next chapter you get to meet the man who once was the group clown between the four cursed friends. The next chapter is called "Parasite?"


	11. Parasite?

First a thank you to my reviewers:

weiliya - And you will find out who Andrew is, but that's still several chapters away. I'm glad you like the longer chapter. When I can I am trying to write longer chapters, but it doesn't always work.

Soraya - It probably is a safe bet if Emily is around long enough, but they won't be learning that secret any time soon . . . I don't think. With smaller details like that, I can't be sure, because sometimes they come up sooner than I think. I can tell you that at some point in the future one of Emily's brother's will cause a lot of trouble for either Wyatt or Chris, but it won't be magical trouble.

By going to Ev's home, Chris has to face some memories of the other time line. He didn't know Ev well there, but he certainly knew Ev's daughter, Genevieve (Gen to her friends), and to a lesser degree Ev's son, Miles. Ev's wife was dead. You will find mention of her in this chapter if you pay attention.

When Chris is with Ev he notices something rather interesting about Ev. That is how this chapter got it's title.

Oh, when you read this can you see anything in Ev that makes you think he was the clown among his friends?

* * *

Chapter Eleven – Parasite?

Chris stood on the doorstep and hesitated. He'd only rarely met Everett Lawson in the other time line and never in this one. He hadn't a clue how the man would react to what he had to say.

"Are you planning on just staring at that door?" a voice behind him asked.

"I was thinking about it," Chris replied absently. As realization sank in, Chris turned around startled to look at Miles Lawson standing there regarding him. "Oh!"

Miles smirked. "Yeah, oh. It's not polite to just stare at someone's front porch. Who are you?"

Instead of answering, Chris grinned. "You must be Miles." Of course he must. He was.

Miles frowned. "How did you . . ?"

"I really appreciated the use of your phone when my brother was hurt," Chris added, confusing the young man even more.

"I did that?"

"What?" Chris looked at him surprised. "Oh! No, your sister did, but she said you made it and it was able to get through the interference, so I really appreciate that." That his sister hadn't to Chris memory actually mentioned her brother's name wasn't entirely relevant. Besides Chris hadn't said that was how he knew Miles' name.

Miles frowned, thinking. Finally, he said, "You're that guy that worked with Brian for Uncle Reggie."

It was Chris' turn to be surprised. "You know Brian?"

Miles snorted. "I make it a point to know any guy my sister dates."

"They're dating?" Chris exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah," Miles nodded. "Can you tell me anything about him?"

"Not really," Chris admitted. He didn't know this Brian all that well. "Actually, I'm here to see your dad. Is he home?"

Miles frowned. "I didn't know that you knew my dead."

"I doubt you know much of anything about me," Chris retorted. "However, you are correct. I don't know him. It is about something concerning Mr. Hollis."

Miles frowned and then shrugged. "Then, why are you standing on the porch? Come on in."

Surprised, Chris followed him into the house. Inside was much the same as the house had been in the other time line, except this one was still standing.

* * *

_Kali Nicolae grabbed Chris arm and pulled him away from the demolished building. "Chris, it's no use. The building is gone."_

_"I'll kill him," Chris growled._

_Kali rolled her eyes. "A little dramatic don't you think?"_

_"How?" he demanded. "He's killing people for their powers, which is bad enough, but now he's attacking civilians because . . ."_

_"Because they side with the resistance," she finished._

_"But that's only Gen," he protested, staring angrily at the burnt building. "Her father and brother have nothing to do with us."_

_"Miles provides us with some pretty cool gadgets that allow the nonmagical among us an advantage," Kali reminded him. "And their father's allowed us to camp out at the house on more than one occasion, so I doubt he considers them 'civilians'."_

_Chris sighed._

_"No one was in there," she informed him. "Be thankful for that at least."_

_"Sure I'm glad he didn't kill anyone . . . this time, but I doubt he would have cared if they were in there."_

_"Perhaps not," she admitted with a sigh. "But he's your brother, Chris. That has to count for something."_

_Chris stared at the charred remains of the house. "Not enough if he keeps killing people."_

* * *

Miles led Chris into a poorly illuminated room. The lights were out and despite persisting daylight the heavy curtains kept most of the light out. Miles walked up to the desk at the center of the opposite way and laid his hand on the shoulder of a person Chris hadn't noticed upon entering. "Dad, there's someone here to see you."

There was a complete silence as Ev decided how to respond and then the sound of squeaking wheels as he pushed his chain back and stood up. He walked over to Chris and held out his hand. "I'm Everett Lawson. How may I help you?"

"May I speak to you alone?" Chris requested, glancing back at Miles. The fewer people he had to explain this to the better. And he didn't know if Miles or Gen even knew about the curse.

Ev considered him in silence before he nodded. "Miles, would you mind telling your sister that I will be joining you for dinner tonight?"

If Chris hadn't looked, he wouldn't have caught the look of pure astonishment that crossed Miles' face.

When Miles had left, Ev spoke in a grave tone, "I rarely join my children for meals, almost never while my wife is away on a trip as she is now. I ask, again. How may I help you?"

"Actually, I am hoping that I can help you," Chris informed him.

Ev looked at him somewhat curious. He waited in silence wanting to know, but not willing to ask.

"Would you mind if I sat down?" Chris asked, indicating the couch to his right.

Ev nodded and sat down on the couch.

"I got a strange call this morning," Chris informed him as he sat down. "It was from my brother and ended rather ominously."

"I am sorry to hear that," Ev commented, not sounding sorry, the monotone letting through no emotion.

"The message asked me to find out everything I could about something called the Aphrodite Crystal."

Ev sucked in a deep breath. "You should avoid it at all cost."

"I have spent the entire day nearly working with others to deal with the events that prompted my brother to make that call," Chris informed him. "The gem itself has been dealt with, but since people had already been affected by it, we had to figure out the cure for it."

"I've tried to find a cure for over twenty-five years," Ev informed him. "I'm sorry, but you are unlikely to do so"

"You wrote a blog entry some time earlier this year stating you would do almost anything to rid yourself of its effects," Chris reminded him. "I'm not rolling my eyes. I saw my brother trying to kill a young woman earlier today because he thought she was out to get him. . . which she was. My brother told me that someone else tried to kill his best friend for a similar reason. I've got a cure."

Ev gulped.

"I've already been over to Centennial and given a dose to Mr. Hollis," Chris informed him. "Feel free to call him and he will confirm what I have said."

Ev frowned at him. "Who are you?"

"My name is Chris Halliwell. I used to work at Centennial."

"Jarod," Ev whispered.

"I intend to get a dose to him next," Chris informed him. "Your friend, Nick, has agreed to help one of us get in to see him."

Instead of responding, Ev closed his eyes, a look of pain on his face. The look quickly changed to one of anger, the first emotion Chris had seen Ev show without reserve.

Focusing on Ev, Chris could feel a second presence within Ev. Did the curse create some sort of parasite? Was that where the voice in the heads of those who were cursed come from? Wyatt had told him that the voice had been his own, but what was to stop a parasite from borrowing the victim's voice?"

When Chris looked up Ev was staring at him. "Interesting," Ev commented. "I haven't had this great of an urge to hurt someone in almost twenty-five years."

Chris frowned and involuntarily scooted closer to the edge of the couch.

Ev chuckled, a sad hollow sound. "I've had twenty-five years to learn to resist these urges. I just find it interesting. It's as if something inside me is afraid you really will be able to cure me. And I suppose it could be some form of reverse psychology, but thing is, you're right. I will do almost anything."

"You'll take the antidote?" Chris asked a bit surprised at the relative ease of the conversation.

Ev nodded. "I will."

Chris reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle with a dose of the potion. "It smells awful and I'm told it tastes as bad as it smells."

Ev took the bottle from him and unscrewed the lid. He took a big whiff and shrugged. "I've smelled worse." And then without so much as a show of distaste he swallowed down the potion. He wiped off his mouth with the back of his hand.

As it had with the others before, green bubbles began at his head, traveling down his body until they dissipated at his feet in green smoke. Ev watched its progress as it went down his body. A slight chuckle escaped his lips. "I actually feel better about this than anything else I've tried."

"Because of the bubbles?" Chris looked at him speculatively.

Ev chuckled. "No, because those bubbles are green." He glanced at Chris. "You never saw anyone get infected did you?"

Chris shook his head. "Nope."

"Well, it's a very green look," Ev informed him. "It's rather eerie, but nothing compared to what comes next, it's rather tame." He sighed. "That does feel better." He smiled. "Much better actually. It's as if I had a giant headache that I didn't notice because I had it so long and now it's gone."

Chris grinned. "I'm glad."

"I'd ask you to stay for dinner, but you already said you plan on getting a dose of this to Jarod, and I know he will be very glad to have it."

Chris grinned bigger. "I'm sure he will. I'll get the antidote to him, but you're going to have to help him convince the people at wherever he is that he's ready to leave. And he might need help getting there."

Ev nodded. "I know, but Jarod's not as far gone as people tend to think. He's been learning to handle the voice, again . . . as long as he doesn't mention that he's hearing one to anyone at that psych ward."

Chris chuckled. "Yeah, I imagine telling someone at a psychiatric hospital that you were hearing voices would not improve your chances of getting out."

Ev gave out a little snort. "Best of luck, getting a drink into that building is going to be exceptionally difficult."

Chris shrugged. "I've got my ways."

* * *

That's two down. Only one more person has the curse (that they know of). Ev is almost more eager for Chris to help Jarod then he was for Chris to help him, but Jarod's not as easy access as the other two.

In chapter nine, Brianna and Max went up against two demons (mostly Max, as Brianna didn't have much time to take in what was going on and Max knew a whole lot more than she did). The chapter ended with what looked really bad for all four (Max, Brianna, and the two other demons). If you want to know who survived, I want at least two reviews. Enjoy.


	12. A Whitelighter for Once

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - You weren't the only one. Chris was a bit creeped out by Ev, which he'll bring up later.

Stacey - Welcome. :) It's always good to hear from a new reader. You get the added bonus of seeing how much my writing has changed since I started writing these four maybe even five years ago. I'm not exactly sure. The original posting of this series was on a site that no longer exists. I actually looked back to see when I started posting here. It was back in April of 2007 and I know the first three or four episodes were already completed at that point. Wow! The mind is a complex place and mine comes up with some pretty strange things. The more I think about something the more complex and strange it gets. I'm currently working on the next episode and when I think of the fact that four or five years ago (whenever it was) all I had for this story was the firm conviction that I loved the title and no clue what kind of story went with the title, it's kind of mind boggling. And I'm loving it. I'm digging deep into my own additions to Charmed mythology and exploring the messed up family tree from "Pardon My Past". I'm pushing my characters to the edge and I'm pretty sure a couple of them are rolling their eyes at me. And I'm pretty sure by the end of it, some of them will want to kill me, but I'm having fun and I think people will enjoy it. Thank you for reviewing. I was getting the idea that two was pushing too hard. You wouldn't think so, but usually when the story's already written I am able to update it within a day and a half. I think I might have held out another five days until I was on a Charmed comic book high and then I would have just given in, because I am so excited to see what happens next in the Charmed comics. And the fact that issue #5 comes out on the 19th means we are that much closer to when issue #6 comes out and Morality Bites is my favorite episode of Charmed (see the series written specifially within the world of that story for evidence, even if there's not much to read yet.) I'm glad this gave you the push you needed to review and I would love to get reviews from you from now on. *Big grin* Yep, I think Peter's adorable, too. I'm having fun showing their relationship. You'll see more of that coming up soon.

Now, back to Max, Brianna, and the Synergists. Who has survived?

* * *

Chapter Eleven – A Whitelighter for Once

Brianna moaned and blinked open her eyes. A golden glow greeted her. She brought up a hand to shield her eyes and the glow stopped.

"Good, you're awake," the voice of a young man greeted her.

She blinked again and saw a lanky young man with medium brown hair slicked back and James Dean-esque facial structure stooped down over her. He stood and looked down at her. "How are you feeling?"

"A little sore," she admitted as she sat up. Her head began ringing. "Oh, my head hurts."

"That's understandable," he informed her. "You had quite the head injury there. If I hadn't gotten here when I did, you might well have died. You've got to be careful. You're only human after all."

She pushed herself up against the wall. She grimaced at the sight of blood, her blood, dripping down the wall where she had hit it. Her eyes widened as she was able to focus across the room. "Max!" She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the pain ringing through her head and ran across the room.

The young man orbed across the room and stopped her a few feet from Max. "You can't touch him. He's alive, but . . ."

"Why can't you heal him?" she screamed. "You healed me. Heal Max."

"I can't," he informed her. "He's a demon." He shook his head. "There's not a drop of human blood in him. His injuries are severe, but for now he's alive."

"Then, heal him," she demanded.

"I can't," he repeated. "I already tried. It just won't work. I'm sorry I don't think he'll make it."

"The Synergists?"

He looked at her confused. "Is that why you were here?"

She nodded.

"I didn't see anyone else here when I arrived."

"Why did you arrive?" she asked confused. "I don't have a whitelighter. I can't possibly have a whitelighter. The elders refused to let my dad have one when he married my mom."

"I'm not your whitelighter," he admitted. "But you do have one."

"Impossible," she declared. She stared down at Max, tears filling her eyes. "There has to be some other option. There has to be some way to heal Max."

He shook his head. "I've considered every possibility that I could think of. There isn't a whitelighter out there capable of healing your friend. Demonic healers won't. And human doctors probably couldn't heal the damage. And even if they could, his demonic blood would ring all sorts of bells. He'd be exposed and probably die anyway."

"Leo Wyatt," she gasped desperately.

"What?" he looked at her confused.

". . . and Paige Matthews," she continued, "healed Cole Turner."

"Cole Turner was half human and they could only heal his human half," he reminded her. "You're friend's not human."

"I know," she admitted, "but it does mean they would be willing to heal a demon if they could."

"Which they can't," he pressed.

"Not magically," she agreed, "but Leo Wyatt was a doctor. He might be able to save Max."

"I don't think that's a good idea," he hedged.

"It's the best I've got," she informed him. "Besides, we know he won't expose Max as a demon. And his kids can vouch for us, if need be." She looked at him. "And so can you. A whitelighter who wants to heal a demon. That'll count for something in their minds."

"It's forbidden."

"What?" she stared at him stunned. "How can it be forbidden? Or do you mean to heal Max at all?"

He shook his head. "I can't be seen by people I knew in life no matter how briefly."

She gaped at him. "His life is at stake here."

"And I can't orb him," he continued. "Unless you are going to claim he has had massive exposure to orbing, he won't be able to handle it. The experience is unsettling until you get used to it."

"Yeah, I know," she informed him. "After all, it's the only form of transportation he or I have known for most of the last twenty years. Or is dark orbing so different from white orbing?"

He shook his head. "No, not so different. He shouldn't be affected by that, but I still can't be seen by the Halliwells."

"Then, don't be," she directed him. "Just get him there alive."

The whitelighter closed his eyes.

Brianna watched him for several seconds, before interrupting. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out where he is," he informed her. "He doesn't exactly have a whitelighter watching him." He sighed and pulled out a cell phone.

She looked at him startled. "You can't get reception here."

"It's a magical phone," he informed her slightly annoyed as he punched in numbers. "Communicating with other whitelighters or even the elders is almost impossible down here. This phone will let me . . ."

"Make phone calls," she interrupted, impatiently. "Not exactly the elders."

He chuckled as he finished dialing in the phone number. "You don't know this elder." He held the phone up to his ear. "Hi, it's JD. I need to find Leo Wyatt. It's a matter of life or death."

* * *

Any idea who JD is calling? And do you think Brianna's idea will work? And why didn't Brianna know she had a whitelighter? And why didn't that whitelighter come themself instead of sending JD?

In the next chapter, "Two Down . . .", Chris arrives at Nick's place so that Nick can get him in to see Jarod Powell. Before they leave there's something else they need to do at Nick's house.


	13. Two Down

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Janet - Unfortunately, sometimes that's the way it goes. I am trying to make a standard of a minimum number or words, but that doesn't always work. The next chapter is not extremely long either, but it's longer than many of my chapters. I'm glad that despite it's lack of length it almost made it worth staying up so late.

Stacey - Brianna definitely was suprised to learn that she had a whitelighter, because her entire life she's heard the refrain that her father was refused one, because of whom he married. She has one now because of a rather unorthodox whitelighter who decided that Brianna needed one. They'll be more on that in time. Thank you so much for paying attention to the questions I asked. So here's my replies to your guessed: 1st - Yes, he was calling Kevin. 2nd - You'll be finding that out over various chapters of the remainer of this episode. By the end of it Max will either be out of danger or he will be dead. You will see the next part of that in chapter fourteen. 3rd - I think I kind of explained that one. 4th - You will definitely figure that one out by the end of the story (at least if I wrote it well enough you will). As to the comics: I am beginning to understand that. I take it that you are somewhere that doesn't get them at present. I go to a website dedicated to the Charmed comics and the guy who runs the site is amazing at getting info on them, but he is unable to get them himself. I hope that Zenoscope makes them more available to people in more countries. Oh, as to JD: You should only know his connection to the Halliwells if you have seen "The Lost Picture Show".

Soraya - I call him JD, because that's what he was called on Charmed. His name is Jonathan David Williams. So no, he's not Jason Dean. He was in "The Lost Picture Show" and episode in season eight.

Two down. One to go. Chris arrives at Nick's home so Nick can help him get to Jarod. Before they go there's something they need to take care of first.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen – Two Down . . .

Chris walked around the house and was relieved to see Seth's car parked out front. He walked to the front door and knocked on the door.

Nick opened the door and looked him over. "Who are you?"

"This is my friend, Chris," Seth said from behind Nick. "He's the one I told you was coming over to help."

Nick pulled the door open wider and stepped out of Chris way. "Nick Martinez. Reggie called to say you helped him out."

"I'm just glad it worked," Chris told him as he entered the building. "My brother and his co-workers had only been affected since this morning, your friends a lot longer than that."

"Believe me, I know just how long that's been," Nick informed him as he shut the door behind Chris.

"I've just come from the Lawson house," Chris informed him. "Your friend Ev is kind of creepy, almost devoid of emotions."

"It's how he copes," Nick informed him. "Does that mean Ev is cured, too?"

Chris nodded.

Nick considered him for a moment. He walked across the room and grabbed up the phone.

Chris raised an eyebrow at Seth.

Seth shrugged. In a low voice he whispered, "He's kind of paranoid or maybe he just doesn't want to be over optimistic."

"His friends are healed," Chris assured Seth in a low voice. "At least those two are. I still need to get in to see Jody's dad."

"The guy's waited this long, he can wait longer," Seth assured him.

"Except I think if we wait much longer, we'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"You can orb in," Seth retorted in a whisper.

"Yeah," Chris agreed, "and I can turn invisible to avoid sensors, but I can't force the potion down this guy's throat. I'll need to talk to Jarod Powell and if I do that, it better not show up on their security cameras as suspicious. I want to be done with this."

"I understand," Seth told him.

"No, I don't think you do," Chris argued. In a whispered voice he added, "I still haven't dealt with the gem itself and until it's gone for good, I'm going to be very apprehensive."

Seth grimaced.

"Let's get going," Nick said from behind them. "We don't have a lot of time before visitor hours are over."

"Let's go then," Chris agreed as he headed toward the door.

"Wait," Peter protested, up until then silent.

Chris looked at him, surprised. "Is something wrong, Peter?"

Peter nodded. "I've heard Seth say things about magic has to be kept secret."

Chris groaned.

Nick looked at Chris, Seth, and Peter uncertain. He sighed. "Curses, magic. Same difference."

_Not really._ It was all Chris could do to keep a straight face. _There's a lot more to magic than curses._

"Let's just go get my friend uncursed," Nick urged.

"That video you showed us earlier," Peter pressed. "We need that."

Nick shook his head. "It's not a video. It's a website."

"Then, you need to take it down."

Chris glanced at Seth. Peter was right. That was something they needed to deal with.

"It will automatically write over in a week," Nick informed them. "And no one else has access to this website."

"You never can be too sure," Seth informed him.

"We need to go, now," Nick urged Chris.

"I can deal with it, if you'll let me," Seth informed him. "I'm decent with computers."

Chris rolled his eyes.

"He means," Peter interrupted. "He'll stand behind me issuing orders which I will ignore if anything is going to get done."

Chris snorted. "Sounds about right."

Seth gave his little brother a look.

Nick looked at them worried. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

"Give me five minutes," Peter requested. "I can get it off."

Nick sighed. "Fine," he decided as he headed over to his computer. "Five minutes and then everyone is out of here, no arguments."

"None," Peter agreed quickly.

"We'll be on our way," Chris put in.

"Thank you," Seth added.

Nick gave him a funny look as he looked up from the key board. "You're thanking me? I should thank you."

"And you're welcome," Seth informed him, "but it goes both ways. You may think we're being silly, but this is important."

Nick nodded, clearly not understanding why this was so important to them, but seeing that it was indeed important to them. He typed in some pass codes and brought up the web site's admin section. He got out of the chair and turned to Peter. "Have at. Be careful not to mess up anything else though."

Peter grinned as he slid into the chair. "No problem. All I'm going to do is get rid of all evidence of what happened when the gem was stolen out of the cave." That said, he turned to the computer screen and got to work.

* * *

Peter does love to tease his older brother. Seth's not really as bad as all that, but Peter does know more about computers. Seth's had other focuses.

The next chapter "To Heal a Demon" is about Brianna's attempt to find a way to help Max. JD gets them where they need to go, but it's up to her from there. Can they help Max or is he beyond saving?


	14. To Heal a Demon

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - Well, I'm glad you remember him now, because he's going to be showing up several more times in this story. Cool that you are a fan of the actor.

Stacey - Well done. JD's going to show up several more times in this story. He's in this chapter briefly . . . as in you know it's him (I presume you know it's him), but it's never actually said. At least he's not mentioned by name. After this, he will be connected with another story that has been vaguely referenced to for a while.

Rereading this chapter, oh the things you can find if you look hard enough. There is major foreshadowing going on here.

If anyone paid attention to the list of things Leo had to do, he's not been to see Hank yet. He stopped off at the hardware store after his interview with the college admins office. Brianna's putting her plan into action in hopes that it will save Max and the next step is getting Leo to listen to her plea.

You get to "see" my Book of Shadows entry. Imagine it on a single page in the book with ivy twining around the edges. Someday I plan to actually make it and upload it, but for now that will have to do. You also get to learn more about the other type of demon I created for Max.

* * *

Chapter Fourteen – To Heal a Demon

Leo Wyatt was pulling into the parking lot of a hardware store when the air in the passenger seat distorted and Brianna was sitting next to him. Through the rearview mirror he saw orbs materialize someone in the back seat of the minivan. He stepped on the break as the orbs appeared again and dematerialized someone out of his back seat. Leo put the van into park in the middle of the parking lot and reached for the door handle.

"Oh, come on," Brianna groaned. "I'm not here to hurt you. I need your help."

Leo looked at her worried. He left his hand on the door handle. "Who are you?"

"My name is Brianna McInnis," she informed him. "I'm a witch."

"You just blinked in here," Leo protested. "That's a . . ."

"I am so tired of everyone thinking that just because I have a natural ability to blink, that is makes me a warlock." She scowled at him. "I'm a witch, but I don't have time to prove it. Call your sons if you need to . . . call your wife for that matter; she saw that he power doesn't affect me. But do it quick. I need your help to save the life of someone very important to me."

"Call your whitelighter," Leo suggested.

Behind them a car honked its horn.

"Until today, I thought I didn't have one," she informed him. "But no whitelighter can help me, or so I was informed by the one that saved my life earlier."

Leo looked at her concerned.

"I beg you, help me."

Leo sighed and took his hand off the door handle. "Why can't whitelighters help you?"

"He's a demon," she said in a whispered voice, "but he's good. I swear, he's good. There are demonic healers out there, but the whitelighter was right that they'd refuse to help Max. They'd kill him given the chance. And because he's a demon I can't even take him to a normal doctor. Please, help me."

Another horn honked behind them.

Leo pulled the van out of park and pulled into a parking spot. "What happened to him?" he asked as he climbed out of the van and hurried around to the passenger side. When he got there Brianna had climbed around to back.

She threw him a blanket. "Spread it out on the ground. There's no way you can work on him in here."

"No way I can work on him in this parking lot at all," Leo informed her. "Too much chance of exposure, not just for magic, but also for him. This is a completely unsterile environment. Can you blink us both to my home?"

She nodded. "Get in. Close the door."

Leo did as she directed and climbed in next to her, the blanket in hand. Once he had shut the door he climbed in as close as he could to her.

Brianna knelt down so she was close to Max. Then, she reached up her arm and wrapped it up around Leo's waist. She blinked and they were gone.

* * *

They reappeared in one of the guest rooms in the manor. Max was on the bed. Brianna let go of Leo and got out of the way.

Leo dropped the blanket at the foot of the bed and started carefully removing Max's clothes to get a closer look at his wounds. "All right, start talking. What happened to him?"

She nodded. "Yesterday, we were at your wife's restaurant . . ."

"What happened today?" Leo requested as he focused on his patient.

"It's related."

He sighed. "Continue then."

She nodded. "Yesterday, we were at your wife's restaurant when one of my friends saw some demons. We didn't know then what they were up to, but ended up enlisting the help of your sons when your son became suspicious of us and separated one of my friends from the rest of us. It turned out the demons were trying to spy on your son or something like that. I'm still not sure."

Leo tried not to worry about his sons too much. It was getting harder with every word she spoke, but he had a patient to see to.

"I won't go into all the details," she informed him, "but Max and I were going to confront two of the demons when Max got cold feet. At least it seemed that way. It's hard to tell with him. The demons were the same kind of demons as his mother. I don't know much about them, but they are called Synergists. Apparently they can make electricity and so can Max. He used that against them and caused an explosion. I was blown into one of the cave walls which knocked me out. I woke up to a whitelighter healing my wounds. He said he couldn't heal Max, but I convinced him that you could help Max."

"What makes you so sure I can," Leo asked. "I'm going to need a lot of medical supplies I don't have from the looks of this and I have never dealt with demon anatomy."

"Not even with Cole Turner?"

Leo looked at her surprised. It had been a long time since he had heard that name. "What do you know about that? I don't even think you were born when he was vanquished."

She shrugged. "I may be a witch, but most of my friends are demons and I've spent time in the underworld. Balthazar is a curse word down there and he's so poorly thought of that his mother, who is still alive and causing trouble for good, doesn't bother using her married name."

Leo looked at her in concern. The idea that Cole's mother was still out there was unsettling, but not something he had time to worry about. He turned his attention back to his patient.

The door to the room opened and Leo's wife entered with two of her sister. "I heard voices down here, but I didn't hear you arrive." Piper stopped and took in the scene in front of her. "What's going on?" she demanded.

"I'll explain," Brianna offered.

"It's all right," Leo put her off. "She asked for my help, Piper," Leo informed his wife before turning back to his patient.

Paige walked over to the bed and looked down at Max. "What happened to him?"

"We tried to fight some demons, the one's Toby told you about yesterday," Brianna announced, looking straight at Piper. "They're gone, but now Max is dying and there's nothing I can do."

Paige held out her hands over Max attempting to heal him. When it didn't work, she frowned. "He's alive, isn't he?"

Leo nodded. "He's a demon."

Paige gulped and looked at Brianna. "And you are?"

"A witch," Brianna informed her, quite firmly. "That's my . . . boyfriend . . ."

"Not true," a raspy voice said from the bed.

All eyes turned to look at Max who was struggling to open his eyes. It seemed to be a loosing battle.

"You're awake!" Brianna exclaimed, running to his side.

"I wish I weren't," he rasped. "It hurts. I should be dead. Why am I still alive? Didn't I vanquish the Synergists?"

"Vanquishing Synergists doesn't necessarily mean you'll die," Prue pointed out from the door way.

"It does if you're a Synergist," Max informed her in a raspy whisper before losing consciousness, again.

"Yes, it usually does," Prue admitted. "Piper, I'm going to see if they're in the Book of Shadows. I know a little about Synergists, but the Book had more info. Presumably the info is still there." With a glance at the unconscious young man on the bed, she left the room for the attic.

"Will he live?" Brianna asked Leo.

"I don't know," Leo repeated his earlier response. "I just don't know enough about his anatomy."

"He's only half Synergist. I don't know if that helps."

"Only if the other half is human," Leo said, much to her disappointment.

She shook her head. "No, Snake Demon."

Leo frowned, but didn't comment. He turned to look at his wife. "Piper, do you know when Ava get's home?"

Piper shook her head. "I can call over there. I'm sure the kids are home by now. They should know." She started out and turned around. "Why do you need Ava?"

"Ava's a surgeon," Leo reminded her. "I haven't performed surgery in over eighty years. That makes me more than little rusty."

"Surgery!" Brianna gulped.

Piper left the room in search of a phone.

Leo nodded. "It's probable. He's in bad shape."

"But he woke up," Brianna protested. "Surely that counts for something."

"It's a good sign," Leo admitted, "but doesn't guarantee that he'll be all right. Ava's a highly qualified surgeon."

"And what's she going to say when she learns that her patient is a demon?" Brianna wanted to know.

"She'll have questions," Leo admitted, "but she trusts us."

Brianna sighed as she looked down at Max. "If she can help him, then get her here. I can't lose him." Tears dripped down her face. "The idiot thinks he's invincible."

"Actually, I think he knew exactly what he was doing," Prue commented as she reentered the room. "You heard him. He expected to die. Was retreat an option?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "Once they started attacking me, I didn't think about that. I was so focused on getting rid of them." She sobbed. "This is all my fault, isn't it?"

"It doesn't sound like you knew how this could affect him," Prue commented. "Why's that?"

"He didn't want to talk about that part of him," she told her. "We only talked about his other half, because of his brothers."

"Brothers?"

Brianna nodded. "Snake Demons tend to have extremely large families, sometimes dozens in a nest if they are full blood. It tends to draw them together."

"The fact that they're related?" Prue gave her a look of disbelief. "That doesn't sound like demons."

"There's a lot of variety in demons," Brianna informed her. "You just see the ones that attack directly. Some attack behind the scenes, getting others to do their dirty work. Others don't attack, preferring their solitude. Some prefer to work along, trusting no one. And there are some who find strength in numbers. With Snake Demons they have found that if they do not form allegiances, they will be overwhelmed in a power struggle."

"Doesn't sound much like a snake," Prue commented as she put the Book of Shadows down on a desk in the room.

"It has more to do with their demonic form and their reproductive ability than anything else," Brianna enlightened her. "Does it say anything about Synergists?"

Prue nodded. She pointed to a page that has the headline, "Synergist".

"Demons who work together  
With other Synergists to  
Create deadly electric fields

When they fight each other  
It is usually deadly  
For all combatants

Death of one Synergist  
Vanquishes all Synergists  
Within a large area

Believed to have  
Extra limbs which  
Cannot be seen

Immune to water damage  
Only known vanquish is  
An electrical overload"

Brianna glanced over at the bed. "Why didn't he tell me?"

Prue looked at her, but didn't say anything. She just let Brianna speak.

"CT and he followed them around forever," Brianna commented. "He had to know that they were Synergist ahead of time," she concluded, "so why didn't he tell me?"

"Perhaps he didn't want to worry you before it was absolutely necessary," Prue suggested. "What I want to know is, why we should trust you?"

Brianna reached out her hand and touched the book. "I couldn't touch that if I was evil."

"There are ways around that," Prue informed her, unconvinced.

"Well, I wouldn't know anything about that," Brianna retorted. "We dealt with the demon. Ask your nephews. They were over at my house yesterday." She looked across the room where Leo was still examining Max. He'd removed Max shirt completely and what was left of Max's jeans had been disposed over. She looked away as she realized that Max wore only his underwear.

Piper entered the room and walked over to the bed. "Ava's on her way over here. She agreed to help out, but she needs to get some things first. She did want to know if there was any chance of bringing him into the hospital. She thinks she could arrange to keep nonmagicals from finding out."

Leo looked over at Brianna.

She shook her head. "Bring him in without ID and without medical coverage and it would cause an investigation."

"It might save his life," Leo reminded her. "No ID at all?"

"Somewhere," she admitted. "He did attend school through college, but there is definitely no medical coverage and he has no driver's license. Out of my friends, I'm the only one that can drive. And only Toby has a nondriver's license."

"Birth certificate?"

She nodded. "Registered in Concord."

"That will work," Leo informed her. "We'll need some more info, but this is probably his best chance."

She stared down at Max laying unconscious on the bed. "What about the medical coverage?"

"We'll figure it out," Leo assured her. He looked up at his wife. "Can you call back Ava? We need to get going as fast as we can. If Paige is will, we should be able to get him to the hospital by the same method he was brought to me."

Paige looked at him curiously. "Oh, how's that?"

"Being orbed into the back of a vehicle," Leo informed her. "Will you?"

Paige nodded. The very fact that he'd been orbed somewhere earlier relieving some of her concerns.

"I'll go call Ava back," Piper assured him as she headed back into the hall.

Leo looked at Brianna. "Now I've got a tricky question for you. If we need it, can you find a blood donor? He doesn't exactly have normal blood."

"That won't be a problem," Brianna assured him. "He's one of sixty-four. At least a few of those like him enough to donate blood."

* * *

Even half dead Max manages to deny that he and Brianna are dating . . . even with her being the one to claim it this time. For record's sake, they aren't dating.

I know this will absolutely go over everyone's head, but Concord is a city in California within the San Francisco Bay Area (which you may or may not know) where my baby sister (now in college) was born (which is the part that will go over your head).

In the next chapter, "Catching Attention", we jump back to Chris and Nick who have arrived at the mental hospital where Jarod is, but JD (whose presence in this chapter was negligible) is already there. But why?


	15. Catching Attention

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - Actually JD has no idea who Jarrod is and (in case your wondering) he's not following Chris (or he wasn't. He recognizes Chris and is now curious why he's there.) Yes, Elizabeth Turner (Cole's mom) is the demon in his biology. Yes, you will find out who CT really is. . . eventually. He's not one to talk about himself much. Hmm. Maybe.

Stacey - Thanks. I wanted to make it seem like a real BoS entry. Technically, I two others, but those are more like letters in the BoS (I forgot about them. One's in "The Magic Is Back". The other's in "A Mother Knows"). This was the first I wrote to look like a BoS entry and the first I wrote about a new demon type. Yes, I do plan to write more BoS entries when the need calls for it. I guess we will just have to wait and see if you caught the foreshadowing (since you didn't mention your guess I don't even know if you did or not). JD's a whitelighter, but the reason he's there has to do with something he said to Brianna.

Chris and Nick arrive at the mental hospital and JD is rather surprised when he spots them there.

* * *

Chapter Fifteen – Catching Attention

As Nick pulled his car into a parking spot in front of the psychiatric hospital Chris waited to get out. "Will they let me in?"

Nick glanced at him as he turned off the car. "Now you ask?"

Chris shrugged. "I hadn't really thought about it before now."

"It shouldn't be a problem as long as Jarod's wife isn't in one of her moods," Nick informed him as he got out of the car.

"Does that happen often?" Chris asked, concerned.

Nick shook his head with a laugh as he locked the doors to his car. "Not really. His daughter, rebellious teen that she was at the time, used to run away to try and live here with her father, so she would order us to all be locked out. It hasn't really happened since Jody, his daughter, got out of high school."

"It's kind of easy to imagine her as rebellious," Chris said with a laugh. "I always got the idea that Jody didn't approve of rules or how things were done."

Nick laughed back as they headed toward the building. "I'd forgotten that you'd worked for Reggie, so of course you would know Jody."

Chris nodded. "I worked there for over a year until a quit I couple of months ago."

The spent the rest of the short walk talking about insignificant details about Centennial and what Chris had thought of Reggie and Jody when working there. Nick found it amusing that Chris refused to call Reggie anything except Mr. Hollis. Once inside, Nick went to talk to the receptionist, while Chris took a seat. He had the eerie feeling of being in a doctor's office waiting room, something he definitely didn't like.

While Nick was busy with the receptionist and Chris was just waiting, the door to the main part of the building entered and a young man entered. This would have been unremarkable, but it was the same young man that Brianna had seen standing over her earlier with glowing hands. He headed toward the entrance and froze half way there. His eyes focused on Chris and widened quickly.

When the whitelighter resumed moving he had changed course. He walked over to the wall and leaned against it. Emotions warred on his face as he stared intently at Chris.

Chris didn't notice. He squirmed as a man dressed in a nurse' garb exited the main area into the waiting room and talked to someone before reentering with that someone.

The door was just closing when Nick returned to him. "Let's go," he said as he reached him. "I've got permission for both of us to go in."

Chris fingered the bottle in his pocket. Getting it in would be a little bit of a challenge, but he figured he shouldn't have too much trouble if he made the bottle invisible. Nothing like practicing a new way to use your powers when you really needed to make sure it didn't fail.

As they walked toward the door, the whitelighter watched them. Emotions continued to bounce around on his face until just before they left the room a smile tilted on his lips. He moved away from the wall and walked over to the receptionist. He grinned at her, an easy grin with clear affection. "I know I was just in there, but do you mind if I head back in. I just thought of something I need to tell Cassia. You don't mind, do you?"

The receptionist gave him a look. "Really, JD, you are so see through. She's lucky to have a boyfriend like you."

He frowned. "How many times do I have to tell you, Cass and I are just friends? Just real quick. I'll be out in less than half an hour, I promise."

The receptionist laughed. "I'm not going to put any extra time limits on it. You are certainly on the list of approved visitors for her.

"On the list?" JD Williams replied, sounding a little insulted. "I am the list."

She shrugged. "That's confidential information, JD. Now, just make sure you're out before visiting hours are over. You know the drill."

JD frowned, he headed over toward the entrance. As he did, he mumbled, "Must get a look at that list."

* * *

If you were wondering "Cassia" is the reason JD is there. Now, the next question is: Who do you think Cassia is?

Sorry that was one of my shorter chapters. Sometimes it just happens that way. The next chapter is considerably longer. It's called "Worrying About Friends". Brianna's worrying about Max and one of her friends shows up to find out what's going on. You get a little more info on various members of their group. Enjoy. ;)


	16. Worrying About Friends

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Stacey - Gotcha. I wondered about that, but I only had what was there to go by, so now we're all figured out, again. I think there is probably foreshadowing in there about Max's fate, but the big thing is something that's a little more long term than that. Sometimes I like to stick in statements that have to do with something very long term. For example there is a character who it has been pointed out more than once could come to an undesirable end and that's a multiple season "prediction" about what will be happening to them, but only what could. I should be interested (once Max's fate has been posted here) which way you thought it would go. As to your comments on the chapter prior to this, very good guesses. It's option A for the record.

Soraya - *Big grin* I like her name, too. You'll meet her in chapter 18.

Brianna can be very focused and right now she's very focused on Max. When one of her friends shows up, it proves illuminating.

* * *

Chapter Sixteen – Worrying About Friends

Brianna sat in the waiting room at San Francisco Memorial very impatient. It had been over an hour since Paige had orbed Max into the back seat of Ava's car. Ava was up there somewhere working on him with a handful of nurses she had pulled from all over the hospital in order to keep her promise about keeping magic from being exposed. Right now, she didn't care too much about that. She just wanted him alive and unharmed.

So focused was she on her thoughts of Max, that she didn't notice anyone approaching her until Toby Edmunds had plopped into the seat next to her. "How's Max doing?"

She sighed. "I don't know. They've been up there for more than an hour. How'd you know? I'm the empath."

Toby frowned. "What do you mean they've been up there for more than an hour? We're in a hospital. Max can't be in a hospital."

"You think I don't know that," Brianna shot back, her voice in a low whisper. "It pretty much came down to this or watch him die. I'm not prepared to do that."

Toby sighed and nodded. "Can they even help him?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "How can I know? He's never been this badly injured before. I think this is one of the reasons we avoid fights when possible."

"We avoid fights when possible, because it is best for those we help that we avoid attention when possible," Toby corrected her. "And then there's the power factor."

"As if I could forget," she retorted.

"What happened, Brianna?" Toby asked, looking at the main area of the hospital with a worried frown. "Max isn't someone who goes down easily."

"What do you know about Synergists?" she asked softly.

"Not much and we aren't discussing this here," he informed her as he stood up. He then turned and pulled her up from her chair. "Let's go talk outside."

She allowed him to help her up and then followed him outside. A warm spring wind whipped at her long auburn hair as they exited through the emergency room entrance. "You said you don't know much. What do you know?"

"I know Max's mother was one," he informed her. "Come on, I probably know less than you. Why do you ask?"

"Because the demons we were after, two of them were Synergists," she informed him.

Toby stared at her. "Okay, so that means he knows their weaknesses."

"Yeah," she shot back annoyed. "It also means if he's anywhere near when one is vanquished, it could kill him."

Toby's eyes widened. "You mean a sympathetic vanquish?"

"Something like that," she scowled. "I didn't know or I would have done this myself or with one of you guys . . . assuming I could even find you. You really need a cell phone."

He wrinkled his nose. "Actually, I have one of those."

She shot a startled look at him. "Since when?"

"My father was feeling paternal," Toby informed her with a shrug. "I hadn't seen him for over a decade and suddenly there he was in front of me, He handed me a phone and informed me that his number was programmed in and to call."

Brianna stared at him for several seconds, wondering if he was pulling her leg. "Seriously?"

He nodded. "It was rather strange," he admitted. "I'm not about to forget a thing like that."

"And have you talked to him?"

"He's called me," he told her, "so yes, I've talked to him. We have nothing in common, but that doesn't really surprise me. His goal is still evil. And mine is still good. Those two things aren't compatible."

"But you want to know if you can change him, right?" she asked skeptically, even if she wondered the same thing about her uncle at times, even if she tried to direct her cousin along the right path. They all had their weak spots when it came to family . . . well not Aka and she'd thought not Toby.

He shook his head. "I can't change him. I know that. I'm just not sure how to extract myself from this. I can't say I'm all that eager to vanquish him, but I could if it came to it."

And that was something she couldn't say for her Uncle Steve. She couldn't vanquish him. She only hoped that if it came to it, she could do what she had to.

Toby shook his head, trying to clear it. "Look, we can exchange numbers later. You said two of the demons were Synergists. What about the third?"

"Still in the isolation chamber," she informed him with a shrug. "I suspect that is where he will stay for the next week or so. When you don't have to feed your 'patients' and you are evil to start with, you tend to make it so no one can get in until you are ready to let them out."

"No way of opening it early?" Toby found that a little hard to believe. There was always a back up plan.

She shrugged, again. "Right now, I'm more interested in Max. And Ben," she added remembering their friend's collapsed the day before. "Did you find out what was wrong with him?"

"As far as the world, under and above, is concerned, CT Bennett is just fine," Toby informed her.

"And as far as his friends are concerned?" she pressed.

"Indigestion," he reported cryptically.

"Indigestion," she repeated in disbelief. "What kind of indigestion lasts four months?"

"The kind that is caused by demon possession," he informed her.

Brianna had met CT, Toby, and Aka long after magic had stopped and thus she had never seen CT while the demon was actively trying to control him. Without magic, the demon had little ability to do much of anything to fight against the growing personality of the little boy he'd thought so easy to control. Aka had shared stories of the boys when she'd first met them, an astounding thought when one considered Aka's age at the time had been less than a week. Still demons were a funny thing and Aka suspected most of those memories were fabricated from things the two boys had said and not actual memories. "Why now?"

Toby sighed. "I suspect with magic back, Ben's not the only one now able to control the demons powers and he's got some pretty big guns in that arsenal to pick from. I mean mental manipulation is nothing to sneeze at."

"Wasn't that one of the witch powers the demon stole?"

Toby rolled his eyes. "You pay way to much attention to those stories."

"Wasn't it?"

"I think so, but it doesn't really matter now does it?" he pointed out. "The demon has it now and he's been trying to use it and other things on Ben. He's fighting a difficult battle, but it is one that he will win. By possessing him but failing to control him after all these years, the demon has put himself at a severe disadvantage, but he's stuck. He hasn't the power to leave either unless he can control Ben."

"And why would he leave if he succeeded," she finished. "I know. But you don't think this will kill him."

"I think that I cannot honestly say that it definitely won't," Toby admitted, "but I suspect that underworld is going to have caused to hate CT Bennett for a very long time to come. Besides, Ben's got the home field advantage so to speak and he's got us. That alone gives him a huge advantage. The demon does not, cannot, understand the value and the strength of friendship. In the end I think it will give him the edge he needs to win this battle . . . unless of course you've figured out a workable spell."

"Not a chance," she returned with a sigh. "I don't have the strength to fight that demon. In thousands of years the only one who ever did was cursed to being forever possessed by him, so no, I sincerely doubt I can do it. If we could convince the Charmed Ones to . . ."

"That is not possible," Toby interrupted. "You know that."

She sighed and nodded. "I do know that, but I think it's foolish. It's possible that maybe they would be able to vanquish The Psycho without killing Ben, too."

"No," he shook his head. "Even if Ben agreed, I won't allow you to risk that with my best friend."

"Ben can't do this on his own," she informed him, "and neither can we."

"Regardless, you won't do it," he said with finality in his voice. There was a pause as a frown grew on his face. "What did you call the demon?"

She shrugged. "I gave up trying to pronounce his name a long time ago, so I decided to just call him, The Psycho."

"His name is Schemamnastic," Toby informed her.

"Now who's been listening to the stories too much?" she asked, tongue in cheek.

"Aka," he shot back.

"Well, I'm not going to try that mouthful," she informed him, "so The Psycho will have to work."

He chuckled. "I guess that is a pretty good description of him. What kind of idiot demon really wants to be stuck in the body of twenty-four-year-old witch/demon hybrid whose got the support system that he's got and the dad he's got. I'd be scared away just by Ben's dad if I was . . . The Psycho."

Brianna giggled. "He is pretty scary when he wants to be and when it comes to Ben . . . I'd be downright terrified to get in his way."

"Well, why don't we go check with the nurses' station and see if they have any info for us on Max and then I'm going to need your help. We need to deal with that third demon before he has a chance to get out of that chamber."

"He's not going anywhere, Toby," Brianna protested, instantly sobering. "Let's at least wait until Max is out of surgery."

Toby stared at her, suddenly understanding the gravity of the situation. "Surgery? Great just great." He kicked at the air and lifted a despairing look upward. "Fine, we'll wait. Or at least you can. I can't rest well until this demon is dealt with, so I'm going to go see if I can find out what we're up against. Ben's in no condition to fight anything right now except maybe a cold. And even that's kind of iffy, but he's got his dad with him, so I'm sure he'll be fine."

"He's worse than he looked, isn't he?"

Toby sighed. "He said he has good days and bad ones and today's just a really bad one. It will get better."

"He needs us."

"Brianna, if we don't take care of that last demon, we will feel the full wrath of CT Bennett upon us," Toby informed her. "And because . . . The Psycho would love to get rid of us, he won't protest."

"'Cause he's such a big danger to you," she snorted. "Toby, you're a Scabber. They require a Power of Three spell. I'm not even sure that's accessible right now and we sure aren't going up against the Charmed Ones."

He gave her a look. "Let's get a few things straight. As you said, I'm a Scabber demon. However, a Power of Three spell is not the only way to vanquish us. If you want more info on that, look it up. Your dad has a Book of Shadows and I know for a fact that Scabber demons are discussed in length in that thing. I give him all the info I had on them. Second, I'm also a darklighter. There are several ways to vanquish us. And because I was born a darklighter, it clouds the waters even more. Among other things the combination actually makes me mortal which makes me susceptible to all sorts of additional things . . . like starving to death. Aka and I have also provided your dad with as much info on that as we could."

"That's why he didn't die," Brianna commented, looking back at the hospital.

Toby frowned. "What?"

"Max," she elaborated. "Your mixed biology makes you more susceptible to all sorts of things. Max's gives him a fighting chance at survival. Had he been a full Synergist, everyone seems to agree that he would have died, even Max, but because he wasn't, he didn't die instantly. Hopefully they will be able to save him." She closed her eyes and leaned against the hospital's outer wall "He'd better make it."

Toby put a hand on her shoulder. "Max isn't someone to go down without a fight. If he's made it this far, he'll make it."

* * *

Schemamnastic. Try saying that five times fast. . . Or one time . . . slowly. Is it any wonder that Brianna gave up trying? So what do you think of what you learned about the five friends? ('Cause little as you learned about Aka, there was technically something new in there about all of them, I think.)

Does an hour in surgery make things look better or worse and what about blood. Brianna said there would be potential donors, but how are they to even know he's in danger? She's been fretting so much she hasn't actually told anyone.

It's finally time to meet Nick's best friend, Jarod Powell. He's having one of his good days. Though as was previously mentioned/illuded to, right now his main problem is that he forgets to keep his mouth shut about the very real voices he hears in his head. How do you think he'll react to Chris' offer of a cure?


	17. A Cure at Last

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Stacey - Toby agrees with you, though chances are he'll go back and forth. He spends the majority of his time around CT (who's very familiar with this demon) and Aka (who tends to be very proper about these sort of things). Brianna thinks that's silly (as evidenced) and Max tends to go with her on these sort of things. And that's all I will say about Max, since I'm going to let you discover his fate later. Yes, CT was very young when he was first possessed. And for a while the demon was in full control, but after a time CT began to fight back. When magic quit working (the "shift" as Toby calls it in episode 14, which is more a reference to the shift in who was more powerful between Toby and CT than it did with anything else) CT lost all ability to use magic (excluding spells and potions, but he never uses them). At that point so did "The Psycho". For the most part this made it very difficult for the psycho to control CT and the battle more or less ended for a time. Now, that magic is back, so is the battle and they both intend to win. As to Jarod . . . here you go. Hope you like him.

Jarod is a character. Now it's his turn to take the potion that will cure him. Think there will be any resistance?

* * *

Chapter Seventeen – A Cure at Last

"Jarod is usually quite easy to get along with," the nurse leading them informed Nick and Chris as he lead them through the corridors toward a door to the outdoors, "so we allow him more privileges than some of the others. He likes to spend his time outside, so that's where we should find him."

Chris and Nick followed him through the doors and into an inner courtyard of sorts. On one side were a garden and a picnic area. On another side was a basketball court. There were several people throughout, some clearly patients, others nurses, and a few appeared to be guests.

The nurse lead them to a picnic table where a man sat looking up at the sky. Nick grinned and quickened his pace. "Hey, Jarod, how have you been?"

The nurse looked at Chris. "I'll let you guys talk."

Chris nodded at him. "Thanks." As the nurse walked away Chris walked over to join Nick and Jarod.

"Jarod," Nick said as Chris reached them, "I'd like to introduce you to someone."

Jarod looked over at Chris expectedly. "Let me guess," he said in a teasing tone. "This is your son whom you've only just discovered you have."

Nick gave him a look and then with a straight face he said, "You know I only have daughters."

Jarod chuckled. "Since when?" When Nick didn't immediately respond he frowned. "Wait. You actually have daughters? When did that happen?"

"No," Nick replied finally. "I don't have any daughters, no children at all."

"Nick, when?" All evidence of laughter had left Jarod's face. For someone who was so cursed he was sent to a mental hospital to deal with it, he seemed to have kept a generally merry personality, but right now he wasn't interested in any of that. His focus was fully on his friend.

Nick sighed. "High school. Long before I met you three idiots. They died and so did their mother."

"They?"

"Twin girls," Nick mumbled. "Rosabelle and Alyssa. I was seventeen. It was a very long time ago. This is about now or at least more recent than that."

"This is more interesting," Jarod decided.

"It's about the crystal."

Jarod's reaction was immediate and violent. He backed himself right into the picnic table and fell into a sitting position. "Not interested."

"You will be," Nick assured him. "It's about a cure."

"There is no cure," Jarod informed Nick in no uncertain terms. "And don't go quoting that stupid book of yours. That's just a fairy tale."

"How about I quote Reggie then," Nick suggested. "I could tell you what he said when he called me this afternoon. This guy," he said, indicating Chris, "works for him."

"Worked," Chris corrected. "I worked for Mr. Hollis at Centennial."

"Mr. Hollis?" Jarod repeated questioningly. He turned to Nick. "Is he serious? He calls Reggie Mr. Hollis?"

Nick nodded. "Be glad he doesn't call you Mr. Powell. He works . . . worked . . . with your daughter."

Jarod grinned. "She's a good girl. Did you get along?"

Chris shrugged. "We worked well enough together."

"What do you have to do with Nick's outrageous claim?" Jarod asked. "If you know anything about that crystal, you know to avoid it at all costs."

"From what I saw today, I certainly agree with you," Chris informed him, "but avoiding the crystal wasn't an option. My brother was infected along with three of his co-workers."

"I'm sorry for you, but that doesn't make you an expert," Jarod argued.

"I'm not an expert," Chris admitted, "but I do have a cure that works."

Jarod looked at Nick. "This is why you are here?"

Nick nodded.

"Why should I trust him?" Jarod demanded. "Just working with Reggie and Jody doesn't make him trustworthy. "

"Reggie called me," Nick told him in an almost gleeful tone. "This guy gave him the cure and it worked."

Jarod stared at him. "Reggie's cured?"

Nick nodded. "Ev, too. He called while we were driving here, wanted to let me know that Chris had been over there and given him the cure. That just leaves you."

"Chris?" Jarod looked at Chris. "That's you?"

Chris nodded. "Chris Halliwell. I'm only here to help. What can I do to convince you of that?"

Jarod shook his head. "I don't know. I gave him up the idea of a cure a long time ago. Now, you tell me that there is one and that you've already tested it on my friends."

"And my brother," Chris reminded him. There was no reason to bring up Wyatt's co-worker, again.

Jarod eyed Nick and Chris, again. After a moment he shrugged and laughed nervously. "It doesn't matter. You can't get it in here."

"I've got it with me," Chris assured him.

Jarod frowned. He sighed and looked at his friend. "This is real?"

"I believe so," Nick assured him. "I know it's your choice and I know I'm the least affected, but I want this to be over. I want all of you to be as close to back to normal as possible."

"No more voices, clamoring with hate," Jarod considered.

"Just yours," Chris assured him.

"All right," Jarod said finally. "You've sold me on it. Where is it?"

"In my pocket," Chris informed him, fingering the potion in question, "but we need to go somewhere less visible. Is there some place we can go that's the cameras can't see and the staff won't be looking?"

Jarod considered this. "That depends on how much time you need?"

"I guess _that_ depends on how fast you can drink something that smells and tastes bad," Chris returned with.

"I've got practice," Jarod informed them. "You haven't tried some of the medicine they give us here."

Chris bit back a laugh.

"You laugh now," Jarod noticed, "but you wouldn't if you'd tried it."

"Probably not," Chris replied, not planning to ever try it. "I suppose if you have no trouble getting it down, then less than a minute."

"I can give you maybe thirty or forty seconds," Jarod informed him, "and we'd need to be heading back by the time they found us. Can this happen in that amount of time?"

"Thirty or forty seconds," Chris repeated. "They look that fast?"

Jarod nodded. "They don't like us off their radar. There are some rooms that don't have cameras, but you can't get in those without permission or looking awfully suspicious and even then, I doubt you'd reach them."

"Point taken," Chris agreed. "In that case we'll need to talk here. There is a bottle in my pocket with a screw on lid. It smells bad and everyone seems to agree it tastes bad, too, but it works."

"You've already convinced me," Jarod informed him. "You don't need to go through the spiel."

"Right," Chris nodded a little chagrin. "Once you've drank it, there's going to be green bubbles coming out of your head."

Jarod and Nick looked at each other. "Sounds about right," Jarod mumbled to himself.

"Yeah," Chris commented. "That's about the same as what your friend Ev said."

Jarod chuckled. "He would."

"The bubbles go down your body until they disappear in smoke from your feet," Chris continued, "so you're going to need enough time for that to happen."

Jarod nodded. "Noted. Anything else I need to know?"

Chris considered this and shook his head. "I don't think so. Lead the way."

Jarod grinned as he began to walk toward the garden. "In that case I'll give you a tour of the grounds. I'll tell you when you can give me your cure. We'll keep walking and leave the area as soon as possible. Hopefully they won't question it, but I've been here long enough. If this will get me out, I can deal with a little bit longer of a delay."

"No voices telling you to stay away from me?" Chris asked as he and Nick followed Jarod.

"Plenty," Jarod admitted, "but today I don't care."

Nick laughed. "Glad to hear you aren't letting this get to your head."

Jarod shrugged. "Letting it _get to_ my head is the only way I am controlling the voices _in_ my head, thank you very much."

Chris fingered the bottle in his pocket.

They walked behind a trio of trees and Jarod stopped. "Now."

Chris pulled out the bottle and handed it to Jarod.

Jarod took it and unscrewed the lid. He wrinkled his nose as he lifted it to his lips and drank it down. Once he had finished he handed it back to Chris. "Nick, would you mind grabbing some apples off one of the trees."

Chris took the bottle and screwed the lid back on. He stuffed it in his pocket and watched as the green bubbles appeared right on schedule.

Nick watched the bubbles for a second before looking up in the tree. "Jarod, I don't see any apples?"

Jarod frowned and looked up. He snorted. "Apparently, we must have had an issue with apples. There were apples here a few days ago." He shrugged. "Oh, well, just tell them I brought you here to pick apples and then we found none." The bubbles ran down his legs and disappeared in a puff of smoke at his feet. His eyes widened and he looked at Chris. "That really did work. Wow." He heaved in a deep breath of air and smiled. "Is that it?"

Chris nodded as the crunch of footsteps on the ground was heard coming toward them.

"Then, let's get going," Jarod directed them as he headed back into the cameras' line of sight. He stopped at a rose bush and leaned down to smell it. "You should always stop to smell the rose," he informed Nick with a wink.

Nick grinned back. "Always."

"He never does," Jarod informed Chris.

"Is everything all right here," a second nurse asked as she approached them.

Nick looked at her surprised. "Of course. Why wouldn't it be?"

"Patients are supposed to stay in sight at all times," she informed them.

Nick gave her an apologetic shrug. "He said there were apples over there and he wanted to show us."

Chris fingered the empty bottle in his pocket. He'd accomplished what he'd set out to do.

"There weren't any apples," he informed her.

"Of course not," she returned. "Those are maple trees. The apple trees are over there," she pointed toward a fenced off area.

Jarod frowned. "Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Of course I'm sure."

He looked up into the branches of the trees. He walked around them and did a little arm pump. "Come here," he directed them.

The weary nurse walked over to him followed closely by Chris and Nick.

Jarod pointed up into one of the trees, a different one than the one Nick had looked up into. "What's that?"

The nurse looked up and her eyes widened. "That's an apple."

Jarod nodded. "I thought so. Apple tree."

Nick snorted.

Chris chuckled. "I've got to get going. I work for my mom, which means I'd better not be late for work." And since his mom had altered his hours for the day already he now had two hours to get there.

"Won't your mom understand?" Nick asked, looking at him surprised.

"Yeah," Chris nodded. "Callie, however, will not."

Nick considered this and decided not to ask. "Thanks, then."

The nurse looked at them confused.

Chris nodded his head with a grin. "Glad to help. Nice to meet you, Jarod. Your daughter's a good person."

Jarod smiled at that. "I think so, too."

"I'll help you out," the nurse offered.

"I can find my own way," Chris told her.

"We have rules," she told him. "You'll need to come with me."

Chris shrugged. "If you say so." With a last look at the two friends, he smiled and headed back to the door inside.

* * *

For anyone who caught that, yes, Nick did call Ev at his house, but he didn't talk to Ev until on the way there. Ev was busy when he called . . . on purpose.

So what do you think of Jarod Powell?

The next chapter is simply called "Whitelighters". You get to find out why JD's there, who Cassia is, and more or less, so does Chris.


	18. Whitelighters

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - Thank you.

Stacey - Each of the three friends formed their own defensive mechanisms. The clown (Ev) blocked out most expressions of feelings. Jarod actually developed his sense of humor more. Reggie poured his attentions into work. And no *roles eyes at a certain someone*, not everyone is cured, but we'll deal with the guy acting like a moron later. Thank you. It's always nice to hear that people like how I have portrayed characters. I hope you enjoy this nect chapter.

Jane - No, I don't think I've seen you review before, but it's always good to hear from a reader. And don't worry about the sporadic part. Obviously, I prefer to hear from my readers more often, but I know real life gets in the way and I've been known to be a sporadic reader of things myself. It's good to know that for the most part you like my characterisation. My mind is a strange place with more complicated twists and turns the more I think about things.

Have you been curious about who this Cassia is that JD's visiting at a mental hospital? Or how about why JD says Brianna has a whitelighter, but that he came instead of that whitelighter? I hope you have episode nine refreshed in your mind, because it's time to learn a little more about what happened that day.

* * *

Chapter Eighteen – Whitelighters

Jarod didn't know every hiding spot in the psychiatric hospital. JD and his friend, Cassia Reynolds, knew most of them. Of course they both had a couple of extra ways to get into places. He sat on a bench in the employees' lounge with Cassia, a young woman in her mid to late teens with dirty blonde hair past her shoulders.

"Are you sure it was him?" Cassia asked, a look of concerned look on her face.

"Do I look like I was born yesterday?" he shot back. "Of course it's him. He's getting too close. We have to get you out of here and soon."

She sighed. "It would be so easy to just let him see me. What do you think my chances are of getting away with that?"

He shook his head. "Pretty low. And how do you think he's going to take it when he sees you?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she replied, sounding pretty disappointed about it.

"Come on, Cass, he hasn't seen you since he was still in high school," JD reminded her. "Seeing you now, looking like this."

"You don't have to remind me, JD," she shot out. "I know. A girl can wish, can't she?"

"Yeah, I guess."

She sighed. "And what about Chris? You saw him, too?"

JD nodded. "No doubt on that one either, but I doubt he's looking for you."

"Of course he's not," she laughed. "He doesn't even know he's met me."

"All those years . . ."

"The price we pay for what that stupid demon did," she shrugged. "At least they fixed it before they vanquished him. I rather like having my body back."

He chuckled. "Same here."

She snorted. "'Cause you had such a problem. All you had to do was glamour back into yourself. I didn't have that option."

"You could have," he pointed out.

"It's bad enough that my body was susceptible to darklighters without my being able to protect myself," she pointed out. "I didn't need to put Jen's body at risk. My charges were unlikely to need me to use my powers while demons and warlocks couldn't use their powers."

"Half of your charges are future whitelighters," JD pointed out. "And darklighters were still a threat."

"I understood the risk," she informed him, "to me, to my charges, and to Jen. I made the best decision I could and I stick by that decision."

JD sighed. "I know and your charges all turned out fine, but it could have ended differently."

"Which brings us back to what to do now," she sighed. "I have to get out of here and it can't look suspicious. And every plan you've come up with . . . I end up on the wrong end of a manhunt."

"I wonder if there is a way to use Chris' presence to our advantage," he considered as he looked in the general direction of the garden.

"I don't see how," she replied. "Besides, you're one to talk. You run and hide when a Halliwell shows up. I doubt you'd be able to put that aside long enough to ask him for help."

"I do not," JD protested quickly.

"Uh, huh," Cassia shook her head with a laugh. "And that's why you dropped my charges off in the back seat of Leo Wyatt's van and didn't stick around to explain the situation."

"It's Piper's van," he corrected weakly.

She rolled her eyes. "That makes it _sooo_ much better. And that's completely not the point."

"What was I supposed to say?" he demanded. "'Hi, Leo. Remember me? I was Sam's charge. You know, the one who went a little crazy when he found out he'd been stuck in a picture for fifty years.' That'd go over _real_ well, I'm sure."

"A lot's happened since then," she reminded him as she stood up and began to pace.

"I still don't think it would be a good idea."

"For him to know that something good became of that whole bad situation?" she quarried as she paced the room. She stopped and looked at him. "It doesn't matter right now, because you are going to meet his son, so let's get going before he leaves the building."

"I don't think that's a good idea," he hedged, "not with . . ."

"My risk," she interrupted. "Let's go." Before he could make any more protests, she orbed out.

JD sighed and followed suit. He had a feeling this was going to end badly.

* * *

Chris followed the nurse down the hall. If he'd had his way, he would have just orbed out, but that really wasn't an option, not with so many people knowing he was here.

"Christopher Halliwell, is that you?" an unfamiliar female voice asked him from behind.

Chris froze for second and turned around. Behind him were two people. The young woman was clearly a patient, but she looked perfectly sane. She also looked like a complete stranger. Chris sighed and focused on her, trying to sense something that would somehow explain why this stranger knew his name.

What he found stunned him. Instead of just a general sense that she was there and that she was alive and well, he got more. To start with, she wasn't alive and well. And neither was the young man next to her. They were some weird mixture of dead and alive that he didn't understand at first. When he took the needed moments to process what he was sensing, he came to the conclusion that both of them were whitelighters. And he'd never tried to sense a whitelighter before, so it had never occurred to him that they would be so different.

"Do you know her?" the nurse asked, looking down the hall at the approaching duo.

Chris frowned, but was saved from answering when the female whitelighter did.

"Of course he probably doesn't remember me," she informed the nurse. "I worked for his mom at The Manor, but he was there so rarely and almost never during my shift."

A whitelighter worked at his mom's restaurant? That was news to him.

The nurse sighed. "Cassia, you were not a maid. I've seen your room, remember."

Cassia? Now he was sure he didn't recognize her. Still she knew the restaurant's name. "Actually, my mom runs a restaurant called The Manor."

The nurse looked at him surprised. "So you do know her?"

"Do you mind if I talk with her for a few minutes?" he asked. He didn't know what a whitelighter was going in a mental hospital, but he did know that she had singled him out for a reason.

The nurse sighed. "I suppose so. It's still visiting hours for a little bit longer. Don't talk too long."

Chris grinned at her. "Thanks. Is there somewhere we can sit down and talk?"

The nurse walked a few doors down and opened the door to a room. She indicated for them to enter. "I'll leave you alone for a few minutes. If she starts sounding depressed, come get us. She's not violent, so you should be safe, but . . ."

"Suicidal?" Chris asked, looking straight at Cassia.

Cassia rolled her eyes and shook her head. She headed into the room and sat down on one of the arm chairs inside.

The other whitelighter followed her in and Chris felt the need to follow suit.

"She's been doing well the last couple of months, haven't you, Cassia," the nurse sounded a little patronizing.

Cassia gave her an annoyed look. "I'm not going to try and kill myself. You never have to worry about that ever, again."

"I hope that's right," the nurse told her. "I'll be just down the hall if you need me."

Chris nodded. "Sure. Thanks." He sat down on a second chair.

The other whitelighter leaned against the wall. "Is it safe in this room, Cass?"

Cassia nodded. "No recording devices here." She turned to Chris with a sweet smile. "Hi, I'm Cassia Reynolds. Do not repeat that to them. They don't know my last name."

"JD Williams," the other whitelighter added. "Since I'm only a visitor they don't feel the need to look too deeply into my background."

"Chris Halliwell, but you clearly know that."

Cassia nodded. "I wasn't kidding about The Manor. I worked there for nearly two decades."

Chris snorted. "Yeah, right. I'd have noticed that. And so would everyone else. Whitelighters don't exactly age."

"You figured out I was a whitelighter?" she asked surprised.

"Both of you actually," he admitted. "How did I not know a whitelighter was working for my mom all that time?"

"Well, how about that?" she offered to him. "There's no way I would have gone to work there looking like myself."

Chris gave her a disbelieving looking. "Why not? It's not like any of us would have realized it."

She sighed. "I grew up in San Francisco, in the seventies and eighties . . . nineteen seventies and eighties," she clarified when he gave her a "so-what" look. "As in with your mom and her sisters."

Chris' eyes widened.

"I went to high school with them," she informed him, "so yeah, your mom, and probably a lot of her customers would notice if Cassia Reynolds worked for her."

"So you lied?" Chris accused.

Cassia shook her head. "No, I didn't lie. A demon, Sjelmikser, switched around the bodies and powers of five of us. I ended up in the body of a teenage girl a little younger than I was when I died without any powers. I used her name, Jennifer Kingsley, when I applied to work for your mom, just as Jen used Alexis Porter's name when she applied to work at Centennial."

Chris eyes had begun to grow wide at the mention of Sjelmikser, and they just got bigger at the name of the chef who had quit The Manor just before Christmas the previous year, and when it came to the name of the assistant manager he had replaced at Centennial, whose job David now held. Had it only been this morning that David had called him to tell him his plans to marry Rose?

"There was a man in my body and after twenty years he really does appear to have gone insane," Cassia informed him. "Two months ago as soon as JD realized he was back in his own body instead of that man's, he found him and had him committed for real. We can only hope that the return to his real body will help calm him down. Jen and Alex fared much better."

"Wait! Wait!" Chris protested as something occurred to him. "Alex is married. Are you trying to tell me that Jen's the one who actually married him, but . . ."

"Let's not go into that now," JD interrupted. "I'm sure you'd love to figure all of that out, but right now we don't have time. All you really need to know right now is that the real Alex has met Josh Owens once, two months ago, and was more than willing to leave him to Jen and that Jennifer Kingsley is the one who married Josh, not Alexis Porter. If you want more details about that, ask me later. We don't have a lot of time before visitor's hours are over and then we will both be kicked out of here."

Chris eyed them wearily. "All right, why did you want my attention? It's clearly not to reminisce on some odd point of my childhood that you were privy to."

Cassia bit back a laugh. "That's true."

"So what is it?" he repeated. "And why can't it wait until tomorrow when there is more time?"

"I was prepared to wait until they realized that I wasn't crazy and I wasn't going to try and kill myself," Cassia informed him. "Even though two months of rational behavior hasn't done that, eventually they would have realized that. It was only a matter of time."

"What changed?" Chris asked, hearing the past tense in all of her statements. "Why _were_ you prepared to wait, but no longer?"

"My brother is here," Cassia informed him. "And as much as I would love almost nothing more than to see him, to hug him close and never let go, we all know that it is forbidden."

Chris nodded. He understood. Of course being the result of what normally was an extremely forbidden relationship, an elder and a witch, he had somewhat less respect for what the elders forbid. Still, for all that he knew nothing about his dad's family except that he was named for his dad's father. He didn't even know what his grandmother's name was.

"If he sees me, then, I'm in trouble," Cassia added.

"Why didn't the elders get you out of here?" Chris asked, not getting the point. "Why didn't they deal with the guy in your body on their own? Surely they could have done that much."

The two whitelighters looked at each other. Cassia sighed. "They could have," she agreed, "but they won't. I got on their bad side when I refused to allow them to turn Jen into a whitelighter while I was in her body. Now, they have told me that I have to get out of this situation on my own . . . or at least without their help."

"You do know that I'm half elder, right?" Chris asked, wanting to make sure that didn't matter.

JD chuckled. "We know."

"That won't matter," she assured him. "Besides, whitelighter powers don't seem to hold the answer and waiting won't work anymore."

"Maybe your brother's presence is just a coincidence," Chris suggested.

Cassia shook her head. "I've been dodging him for two hours. He specifically looking for someone who looks like me and he's using my name, my full name. There's no coincidence. If I'm not out of here tonight, I will have to decide which problem is smaller."

Chris sighed. "I don't know what you expect me to do. I think it would get me into trouble if I cast a spell on him. And the memory dust is dangerous, because you don't know what you are erasing . . . not to mention you don't know how long he's been looking. I can't glamour, and I'm not sure what that would accomplish anyway."

"What about a spell that would make her brother see someone else when he looks at Cassia?" JD suggested. "The problem with a glamour is that everyone would see the wrong person, but a spell where just he sees her differently would at least convince him that this wasn't the place he wanted to look."

Chris looked at them for several second, considering this. "If it fails, we'll know instantly. And if it fails, we will have a lot of clean up to do. As . . ." Chris tried and failed to remember JD's name, so he just said, "he pointed out, we don't have much time here."

"Unless you've got another idea, it's the best we've got," Cassia pointed out.

_How did I get pulled into this mess? _Chris sighed. "Since you know my family, you should have contacted us sooner."

"I didn't want to contact you at all," she admitted. "But I need your help. Please."

He considered them for a moment more and then nodded. "Someone have some paper. I've got a spell to write."

* * *

In episode nine, you might remember the demon who switched around Piper, Leo, Wyatt, and Chris. Well, Cassia and JD were more of his victims. Difference is they were trapped in the bodies of others for about twenty years. And if you have listened carafully, you've heard the names of two of the others switched in previous episodes. Jen, the former cook at The Manor and Alex, the former assistant manager at Centennial were not exactly Jen and Alex.

Cassia is in way over her head, but she's not getting any help from Up There. Even those who might help her, are not doing so in defference to the majority, but the idea was to teach her a lesson not to expose magic to her family. In the next chapter, "Oh, Brother", things are going to get more complicated for Cassia.


	19. Oh, Brother!

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Stacey - Hehe. Yep. He's a little at loose ends here. No, you shouldn't know Cassia's brother. I will tell you a little bit about him though. Daniel is that youngest of four children (I use the term loosly since they are all in their fifties . . . I think.) The oldest is Ashley. She's a doctor, you'll find out a little more about that in this chapter. Belinda is the second child in the family. She's . . . a politician's wife. She no longer holds a paying job, but she is a very busy person. You'll learn a little more about that in this chapter too. Cassia was born third. She died shortly before she started college, less than a week before her eighteenth birthday. Cassia graduated high school with Prue and Andy (among other people). Daniel is the youngest (as stated above). He attended high school with Piper. He did not graduate with her, since the family moved after Cassia graduated. He's a business owner. Fortune 500 type of thing. Well known, well respected . . . scary when he wants to be. Keep an eye out for those little details in this chapter.

Daniel Reynolds is not someone who is willing to take no for an answer. He started this trip with a visit to his sisters, Ash and Belle. He needed them to sign some papers for him.

* * *

Chapter Nineteen – Oh, Brother!

Daniel Reynolds looked at the file the doctor had handed him. A smile grew on his face as he looked up and nodded. "Yes, this is her. This is my sister." He closed the folder and handed it back to the doctor. "When can I see her? My family would like to get her home as soon as possible."

"You have to understand that when a patient does an abrupt about face like Cassia did two months ago, their motives are rather questionable," the doctor informed Daniel.

"What I understand," Daniel replied without showing a drop of emotion, "is that I have been looking for my sister for a long time and that I have papers sighed by the Lieutenant Governor of the state of California which give me the right to get her out of this facility at once if I should find her here." Sometimes it was rather useful that Belle's husband was in politics. The look Daniel leveled the doctor with put fear into even the most dauntless of his competitors in the boardroom. This was one battle he wasn't about to lose.

"Cassia requires constant attention until we have determined that she is no longer a threat to herself," the doctor tried reasoning with him.

"The Chief Physician at Angel of Mercy Hospital in Sacramento has agreed to provide whatever medical aid is needed," Daniel's voice brooked no argument. He was loving throwing around the names of his older sisters and their spouses. Ash would be annoyed at him, but she would go along with it. Besides, she had agreed.

The doctor sighed. "Why don't we go find her? Perhaps when you meet her, you will conclude that she's not actually the person you are looking for. After all, she's . . . a lot younger than you."

Ironic really, that his older sister looked like she was younger than his daughters, but it didn't matter. There was, however, no doubt in his mind that this patient was his older sister. Of course, he couldn't tell the doctor that. All it would take was one word from him that their teenage patient was older than the over-the-hill business man in the head doctor's office and they would lock Daniel up right along with her.

* * *

Chris sighed as he looked at Cassia. "I don't know what to say. I think it worked, but I have no way of knowing for sure. Only your brother can tell us."

Cassia offered him a week smile. "Thanks for trying."

"I'd still try to avoid him," he suggested.

"It might not be an option," JD commented from the doorway. "He's headed this way with one of the doctors."

Cassia exhaled slowly. "All right. Thank you."

"You'd better get going," JD suggested. "Me, too. Good luck, Cass. Let me know if it works."

Cassia nodded. "I will." She watched as the two young men left and then she went the opposite direction. If her brother ran into the nurse that had directed them into that room, then she didn't want it to be easy for them.

Since the hallways had security cameras, Cassia couldn't just orb out, so when she heard someone behind her mention her name, she just walked faster. She opened the door to the outdoors and looked up. _Come on, we both know you can fix this._

There was no response to her silent plea. She wasn't all that surprised, since he had been ignoring her much of the time in the past couple of months. It seemed he was willing to go along with what the other elders had decided. It didn't really surprise her, but it did annoy her.

Cassia felt a hand on her shoulder. Terrified that Chris' spell wouldn't hold, she turned around, a smile on her face. "Hello, Deary," she said as she looked her little brother in the face. "May I help you?"

Daniel's face fell at the sight of her. "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else."

"Oh, dear," she replied, trying to sound disappointed when in reality she was thrilled to be this close to her brother. "Someone nice I hope."

The doctor exited the building and approached them.

"Someone very nice," Daniel said with a confused nod.

"I see you've met Cassia," the doctor commented as he reached them.

Daniel tried to hide his confusion, before he turned to look at the doctor. "Would you mind if I talked to her?"

He must have succeeded, because the doctor didn't appear to sense anything was amiss. "Do I have a choice in the matter?"

Daniel smiled at him. "I was trying to be polite."

The doctor scowled at him.

As soon as the doctor was out of hearing range, Daniel turned back to look at her. "You look nothing like the young woman in the picture."

Cassia saw the sadness in her brother's eyes and she wanted so much to hug him, assure him that everything would be all right. "You're disappointed."

He offered her a weak smile. "I've been looking for so long."

"Perhaps she doesn't want to be found," Cassia suggested, feeling terrible for saying it.

He sighed.

She laid a hand on his shoulder. "It might be time to end your search, Deary."

"But Cassia . . ."

"Is that who you are looking for?"

He nodded. "My sister." He sighed. "It's been almost . . ." He stopped and looked at her, a glimmer of a tear in his eye. He rubbed it away.

Cassia took him by the hand and led him over to a bench. "Tell me about it. Perhaps it will help." It felt weird trying to comfort him about her death.

Daniel sat down on the bench next to her. "My sister, Cassia, was in a horrible accident just before she would have started college many years ago. My other sisters, my parents; they moved on, but I couldn't not entirely. I married, had kids. I thought I had moved on, but then I saw this picture." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet.

Cassia watched for glimpses of family pictures. She recognized her oldest sister, Ashley, in one picture, but all the other pictures flipped by too fast.

He pulled out a folded newspaper article. He handed it to her.

Cassia took it and unfolded it. She found herself looking at a picture. It took a moment, but she found what had caught her brother's attention. Standing partially hidden behind the person the picture was focused on she saw a person with her face, her body. She looked up at him.

Daniel pointed to that person in the picture. "That's Cassia, my sister. This picture was taken fifteen years ago. Someone who's dead for twenty-four years can't appear in a picture."

"No offence," she said in a whispered voice, "but the person in the picture isn't twenty-four-years-old and certainly not old enough to have graduated twenty-four years prior."

"I know," he agreed, but there was something in his voice that told her there was more to it than he was saying. "I thought about that, too. At first I thought she might be a distant relative, but when I looked into it, nothing seemed to add up. Six years ago I found this picture." He pulled out a photograph.

It was plainly a picture of Cassia despite hair that had been cropped off and clothes she would never wear. Apparently Ron had tried to deal with being in her body by making her body look masculine.

"Nine years later," he reminded her. "Same person, same age. That's not normal, but if she didn't age in nine years, what's another twenty-four?"

"It seems a little," she paused before finishing with, "unrealistic." She knew she had to end his search, but she didn't want to. Besides, there was something about this whole conversation that was beginning to sound suspicious.

He shrugged, clearly unconcerned. "I can't explain everything that I've learned over the last six years, but I've no doubt that it's my sister in both pictures. I've no doubt that she died. She's not a ghost. And I'm not crazy."

_There is definitely something up with this conversation._ Cassia stared at him. She wasn't sure what her little brother had found, but he seemed awfully sure of himself. And the way he worded it, it almost sounded like he really did know what he was talking about. It sounded like he knew about witches, warlocks, whitelighters, and magic, but how was that possible.

She had tried to avoid checking up on her family, but she knew Ash, perfect Ashley Nicole, was both a doctor and mother of ten, only one of who was a daughter. She knew that daughter, seventeen-year-old Kelsey Kinsey, because yes her sister did chose a first name for her daughter that was so close to her last name, was quite spoiled by her six older brothers, and adored by her three younger ones.

She knew that Belle's son, Aaron Quinn, would soon be graduating college, and that Belle's daughter, Linda Shay Norton, wanted to her follow her dad, Lieutenant Governor Anthony Quinn, into politics. Her election into the Sacramento city government the previous November was just a stepping stone for her.

She also knew that Danny's oldest daughter, named Cassia for her, had died before his second daughter, Sophia, had been born. She knew that her sister-in-law didn't care one whit about the money Danny made in the boardroom, but that she was most likely drinking herself into an early grave. It was to the point where Cassia had requisition some of her fellow whitelighters to try and help Eileen.

"Aren't you going to say something?" he asked looking at her.

"It's an interesting theory," she hedged.

"A theory," he repeated. "Is that what it is?"

"What else could it be?" she asked. "You're trying to tell me that your dead sister isn't dead."

"I said she died," he informed her. "I didn't say she stayed that way."

Cassia gulped. "Like I said, an interesting theory."

He scowled. "Ash says I'm a fool to pursue this, but I never thought you could look me in the face and say you weren't my sister."

She looked away. "Visiting hours are almost over and I should go."

He took her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Look me in the eye and tell me that you aren't my sister."

She stared at him, motionless.

"Do that and I will walk away," he informed her. "Otherwise I'm going to just keep coming back."

"You can't do that," she told him. "It's not right."

"Cass, they brought you back," he pleaded with her. "They brought you back and didn't let you tell us. Please, I don't care what your elders say. "

_Did he just . . ? How . . ?_ Cassia stared at him stunned. _How am I supposed to respond to that?_

* * *

So who wants to know who Andrew is?


	20. What's In a Name

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - It certainly does have a lot of drama. Drama can be fun. Of course, you can't have all drama all the time, but I do enjoy it.

Stacey - Daniel is very deturmined. He's been looking for a "ghost" for fifteen years. He's not going to give up when he's this close. He saw a picture before Chris cast his spell and the doctor lead him to this girl. He's certain that something's up and he needs to know if he's right. He knows a lot of things from those fifteen years of searching. Yes, Cassia is in over her head. She always was once she ended up here, but now more than ever.

Wyatt would prefer that he could have joined his brother, but leaving work would have been suspicious. Now after a talk with his boss, Andrew approaches him. Andrew wants to tell him how it is he knows about magic. This chapter should tell you _who_ Andrew is. The flashback in this chapter takes place somewhere shortly after the end of season one. It is not from an episode . . . obviously, considering who's in it. The flashback explains how he got his name, but the reason he was concerned that this might have been about him has to do with the events of the episode his mother was in during season one. Unfortunately, as Andrew explains, his mother doesn't remember them. We'll get into why he knows about them at a later date.

* * *

Chapter Twenty – What's In a Name

Wyatt nodded. "Yes, sir. That's all I can tell you. I saw no intruders. I did try both the door and the phone and could not use them. I'm glad to see that they are usable now. I'm not sure what else you think I can tell you."

"Are you sure there is nothing else?" Hal Brookes looked at him speculatively. "Surely there is something else?"

"Nothing else that I can say," Wyatt repeated. "I'm sorry. I don't think I'll be much help in catching whoever did this."

Hal sighed. "Fine. I'm sure that the police are going to want to talk to you anyway."

"They already did," Wyatt informed him with a sigh. "It was a very long and unproductive conversation. There is nothing I can do to help the police. I don't know who did this!" he added in exasperation.

Hal nodded. "One more question?"

Wyatt sighed. "Fine. What is it?"

"Why didn't your cell phone work?"

Wyatt groaned. "My cell phone was decimated when something crushed it." _Nathan's foot_, he thought, but he wasn't going to say that aloud.

Hal scowled. "I hope you don't intend for us to replace it."

Wyatt shook his head. "No, I don't expect you to replace it Hal." _I don't expect anything of you._ As if dealing with curses didn't make a bad enough day, it appeared that the situation had put his boss in a bad mood and all he wanted to do was get Hal out of there.

Thankfully, that is what Hal did next.

As soon as he was out of the room, Wyatt turned back to his computer. Ever since he had gotten here, he had been looking through ever database he could and there wasn't a word about the Aphrodite Crystal. Of course Chris had mentioned that the three demons neither of them had seen the day before had stolen it from some cave somewhere, but they had gone to the trouble of the changing the physical manifest, why not the technological one?

He sighed. It probably didn't matter, but there was no way demons who didn't bother doing that were smart enough to be behind the attacks over the last few months, and someone was definitely behind them.

"Are you busy in here?"

Wyatt looked up to see Andrew standing in the doorway. He shook his head. "Not really, I guess. Come in."

Andrew entered the room, shutting the door behind him, and stood in front of Wyatt's desk. "Do you have time to talk?"

"I think I just implied that I did," Wyatt informed him, amused. "Want to have a seat?"

Andrew shook his head. "Not really." I think it's best if I don't."

Wyatt shrugged. "Have it your way. What brings you here?"

"Twenty-eight years ago a demon tried to kill my mom," Andrew announced without preamble. "She doesn't remember that. Pretty much no one involved does."

"How old are you?" Wyatt asked, giving him a strange look.

"Almost twenty-eight," Andrew informed him. "Why?"

"Just trying to figure out if you were relating something you experienced or something someone told you."

Andrew snorted. "My mom was pregnant with me at the time. I don't know a lot of the details except that I was the target, not my mom and that your family saved her life and mine. I don't know why I was the target, but is there any possibility that I was the target this time?"

Wyatt frowned. "I don't know. I don't think so, but is there anything else you know about the people who attacked you."

"Not people," Andrew informed him, annoyed. "Demon, warlock. I don't know. They have been silent for years. No attack has been made since then, but why would someone target someone who hadn't even been born yet."

"Prophecies are the most popular reason," Wyatt retorted. "I can look into it and I'll ask my mom and her sisters what they remember about you."

"Her name's Tanya, Tanya Parker," Andrew informed him. "I doubt they'd know my name. She worked with your Aunt Prue before she died."

Wyatt frowned. "Um."

Andrew looked at him curiously. "What does "um" mean?"

"Aunt Prue's not dead," Wyatt mumbled. No time like the present to start letting that get into the general public.

Andrew stared at him blankly. "I was at her funeral," he protested.

"You remember that?" Wyatt asked skeptically.

Andrew shook his head. "No, but Mom has mentioned it."

"Well, she's not dead," Wyatt repeated. "She lives in Boston with her family."

Andrew's eyes widened. "Really?"

Wyatt nodded.

"Mom would probably like to look her up," Andrew commented. "They weren't close by any means, but Mom looked up to her."

"Well, if she'd like her number, let me know and I'll talk to Aunt Prue," Wyatt offered.

Andrew grinned. "I'll let her know."

"I guess that explain how you know about magic," Wyatt commented, "but what about whitelighters? How'd you know I could heal Nathan?"

Andrew chuckled. "Your dad had a charge who lived next door to me. I was pretty young when he lost his magic, so I don't remember that. I guess something happened to his replacement, so I found out when he was introducing them to their new whitelighter."

"I can't imagine they just informed you that my dad used to be a whitelighter, that the person with him was still one," Wyatt retorted.

Andrew laughed. "Not at all. They didn't inform their charge either, said something about him being a future whitelighter, whatever that means. I was hiding."

Wyatt looked at him amused.

"What?" Andrew replied defensively. "I was seven. When we are doing what we shouldn't, we hide."

Wyatt burst out laughing. "I guess I'll have to keep an eye out for kids when I use magic."

"I wouldn't be too worried about that," Andrew commented. "I think it's me. I seem to be a magnet for magic."

Wyatt looked at him curiously. "How so?"

"My mom doesn't remember what happened when she was first pregnant with me, but she does remember something that happened several months later."

* * *

_The parking lot for the supermarket was filled with cars. Tanya Parker was pushing a cart towards her car filled with groceries. She was visibly pregnant. The sound of arguing caused her to look up. A man and a woman were yelling at each other. Tanya shook her head and sighed. She pushed her cart in next to her car and started searching her purse for her keys._

_"Hey, lady, out of my way!" a young man's voice called out to her seconds before he rammed into her and knocked her to the ground._

_Tanya slammed to the ground, landing on her stomach. Trying to ignore the pain she started to get up. The pain in her belly forced her back down and she hit her head against the edge of the car, knocking her out._

_When she came to she heard a man ask, "Is she going to be all right?"_

_"They're both going to be all right," another man answered. "When she comes to, she's going to remember being knocked down. She'll want to see a doctor to make sure her baby is all right. I'll need you to deal with that."_

_"Her baby is all right, isn't it?" the first man asked._

_Tanya kept her eyes closed. She had a feeling this conversation would end if they realized she was listening and she wanted to know what was going on._

_"The baby is just fine," the second man assured him. "I need you to either call 9-1-1 or bring her to the hospital to be checked."_

_"9-1-1? Isn't that a bit extreme, Andy?" the first man asked._

_"She might not think so," "Andy" informed him. "We both saw that boy run into her. She might want to prosecute."_

_"I don't think I could ID the kid if he stared me in the face," the first man retorted. "And since both she and the baby are . . ."_

_"Just call them, Sean," Andy ordered him. "I'll be gone when you arrive. Don't mention my presence, especially if Darryl is there. He's smart. He'd realize something was up."_

_"I know that," "Sean" threw back. "I've been listening. I'll see you later, okay."_

_Andy shook his head. "Sorry, Sean. They've reassigned me. I've come too close to getting caught one too many times. They want me away from San Francisco. I'll be back long enough to introduce you to Natalie, my replacement, but after that . . . I have to go. Sorry."_

_Sean sighed. "Figures. I feel like they've been playing musical whitelighters with me these last few years and I finally get a whitelighter I like and they reassign you. Would it do any good if I moved?"_

_Andy burst out laughing. "I doubt it, but I appreciate the thought." His face turned serious as he added, "Keep an eye on Prue for me, will you."_

_Sean nodded. "I will. Be careful."_

_Andy sighed. "I will."_

_"Get going before she wakes up and sees you," Sean urged him. "I guarantee she won't keep your secret."_

_From behind her barely opened lids, Tanya fought a smile. _If you only knew._ And then it was all she could do to keep shock from showing off her face as Andy vanished in swirls of lights and bubbles._

_"You saw that, did you?" Sean commented, proving she had failed to keep her expression blank._

* * *

"He had to make a decision there," Andrew commented. "He decided to start by introducing himself. His name was Sean McInnis." He didn't notice the startled look on Wyatt's face as Wyatt recognized the name of his host the day before. "He convinced her to keep what she heard quiet . . . at least from the police. He did end up calling the police for her, mostly because she didn't want someone else to get hurt. She told me once that it would have been unremarkable, especially after what had happened before, except that when one of the detectives introduced himself as Inspector Darryl Morris, Sean reacted a bit oddly and she suspected this was the Darryl Andy had mentioned. It was only later that she really began to put the pieces together," Andrew informed Wyatt. "On her last day of work before maternity leave she was in Prue's office delivering a sandwich to her when she noticed a picture on Prue's desk. It was a picture of Prue with Andy. Combined with Andy's mention of Prue, she was convinced that this was the man she had seen, until she asked Prue about him."

Wyatt grimaced. "I can imagine how that conversation went."

Andrew laughed. "Yeah, Mom was a bit startled when she was informed that Andy had been dead for several weeks." Andrew looked at Wyatt. "He healed Mom, didn't he? And me? She might have miscarried there and we wouldn't be having this conversation. Mom's always thought that, but Sean refused to answer that question."

"It's possible," Wyatt admitted. "You'd have to ask Uncle Andy about that one."

Andrew looked at him startled. "Uncle Andy?"

Wyatt nodded. "He's married to Aunt Prue."

"But she thought he was dead," Andrew protested. "And he sure seemed certain he wouldn't see her, again, at least according to my mom."

Wyatt nodded. "They met, again, ten years later. I don't know the details, but they are both alive and well, living in Boston with their two daughters."

Andrew smiled. "I'm glad to hear that. I was named after him you know."

Wyatt didn't say anything, just looked at him surprised.

Andrew laughed. "To this day Mom's convinced that Andy did something and I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him. She would love to thank him for that."

"I'll let him know," Wyatt assured him.

With that Andrew left, leaving Wyatt with a lot to think about. He walked over to the wall and picked up the phone. He punched in the number for his aunt and uncle in Boston. It appeared to be a good idea for him to let them both know about his conversation with Andrew. He had a feeling they would have a much better idea of what was going on than either he or Andrew did.

* * *

So have you figured out who Andrew is, from which season one episode he is from? If not let me know and I will tell you.

For now, it's back to the hospital with Brianna to see how Max is doing. Once more, Max is not actually in the chapter, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what's going to happen.


	21. Demonic Blood Ties

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - You will definitely get your wish. I have plans to deal with his story which was started in "The Truth Is Out There . . . and It Hurts".

Jane - Well, there you go. I will definitely be dealing with the future events of that episode. Obviously this will not be the original time line that warlock came from, since that warlock did kill most of those he set out to kill, but Tanya's baby was the key. And for this story, Andrew is that "baby". Of course at twenty-eight, he's not exactly much of a baby any more.

Stacey - The episode, which also was partially the inspiration for the Emily parts of the events of "Wyatt's Friend", is called "The Truth Is Out There . . . and It Hurts". I love to relate things back to events from Charmed. If I know about any stories that could have more to them, I will consider using them. And I love cameos, so you will see characters from Charmed pop up from time to time, usually when it connects to a story. Hmm. That gives me and idea. I'll put the idea at the bottom of the chapter.

Let's just say Max has a complicated family and that if anyone has questions . . . ask. There's only a couple questions I won't answer about them.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-One – Demonic Blood Ties

Brianna had taken to pacing the waiting room. Several people had already given her dirty looks, but she had noticed that she wasn't the only one pacing, so she ignored them.

"Brianna, I think you're scaring people," her father's voice said from behind her.

She looked up to see her dad, Sean McInnis, coming toward her with Max's half-human little brother, Daemon Thompson. "Daemon, it's been a while."

"Your dad said Max's in surgery," Daemon commented, looking worried. "I was hoping you could tell me how he was doing."

She sighed. "I haven't heard anything." She looked at her dad. "I don't remember telling you that Max was in surgery."

"You didn't," Sean admitted. "Toby stopped by and suggested I find Daemon."

Brianna looked at them for several seconds as a smile formed on her lips. "That boy doesn't know when to quit interfering."

"_You_ should have called me," Daemon informed. "Max is my only family."

"I guess that means you are on his mother's side," Dr. Ava Nicolae said from a few feet away. She looked at the two additional sets of eyes on her. "I assume these two are with you."

Brianna nodded. "This is my dad, Professor Sean McInnis. He teaches literature at City College." She hugged her arm around Daemon. "And this is Max's youngest brother, on his father's side. I don't know of any on his mother's side. This guy does not acknowledge any of them with the exception of Max, though."

"And River?"

Brianna looked at her surprised. "Can we talk somewhere else?"

Ava nodded. She led them into the main part of the hospital and into an empty exam room. "Dr. Ava Nicolae," she extended her hand to Brianna. "I don't believe we were actually introduced earlier."

"Brianna McInnis," Brianna informed her. "What was that about River?"

"The boy shimmered into the operating room while we were working on Max," Ava informed her. "I almost had a very talented doctor quit on me right there. Considering every person in that room was a gypsy, witch, or some nonmagical who is well informed about the magical world, no one was comfortable with the fact that our patient was a demon in the first place. When we have a second demon shimmering into the operating room, it's bound to cause tensions to rise even more. Add to that the almost completely alien layout of his vital organs and that young man is extremely lucky to be alive. Does he even have a heart?"

Brianna blinked at the question. "A heart?"

Ava nodded. "We couldn't find it. We didn't spend too much time looking since we had a lot of internal bleeding to fix. Fortunately we didn't need to have a complete understanding of his anatomy to sew up his innards."

"Will Max be all right?" Daemon asked, turning concerned eyes on her.

Ava nodded. "I believe so. He wouldn't have been if River hadn't of shown up."

"What happened?" Brianna requested. "You said River was a distraction. You said someone almost quit because of him."

Ava nodded. "And that's true, but River provided two very important things to us. He donated blood, which considering what we were dealing with, it was a blessing that he was a match. You didn't mention that some of those sixty-four siblings were part human."

Brianna did a double take at those words. "River's part human? That can't be right. Daemon's the only one that's part human."

Ava shrugged. "I'll admit, my experience with demon blood is a bit limited, but those two didn't even share a blood color. And Max doesn't have a known blood type. River's O negative with just enough demonic blood in his system to make his brother accept the transfusion. He had lost a lot of blood, so we couldn't leave him without giving him a couple of pints of blood. He seems to be responding well. He's in recovery, under guard so I don't have someone trying to take blood samples or anything else that might lead to someone realizing he's not exactly human."

"Can we see him?" Daemon requested.

Ava nodded. "Yes, but the brother you don't acknowledge is there, too. Will that be a problem?"

Daemon shrugged. "I don't know. I've never met him."

"Actually, it kind of will be," Brianna admitted. "Their father doesn't know how to find Daemon. We don't actually know if River would let him know where to find him.

"You've never met your father?" Ava looked at the boy surprised.

Daemon shook his head. "No. Max says he's bad."

Ava stared at him for several seconds. She shook her head bewildered. "Well, we will just have to find a way to make this work. I assume he's met you, Brianna."

Brianna nodded. "He tends to leave when he sees me, says I'm a bad influence on his brother."

"I see," Ava considered this. "Well, he can't leave this hospital for at least a day due to the blood we took from him, so I'd suggest not scaring him away. Okay?"

Brianna sighed. "I'll do my best."

"Those boys aren't leaving this hospital only when they are safe to leave," Ava informed her. "See to it that you don't."

Brianna sighed and looked at her dad. "I'll go in and see him first. Keep an eye on Daemon, okay."

"No one is hurting this boy on my watch, Brianna," Sean informed her. The entire coven had taken to protecting the half demon boy they'd adopted. The Snake Lord might be a dangerous demon, but had he known were to look for his youngest son, even he wouldn't have been foolish enough to go about against over a dozen well trained witches. And well trained they were, if for no other reason than the fact that they did harbor Daemon within their midst.

* * *

In the next chapter Cassia has to decide what choice to make with her brother and she has someone come to make sure she understand those choices.

In the next episode people are going to die. Are there any nonmagical characters from Charmed or (and I'm really putting myself out on a limb here) Charmed: Heritage that you would like to see dead? I know at least one specific character who will not survive the episode. Obviously, any character I need for a future story line will survive (so if there is someone out there who wants Andrew to die . . . he's safe . . . for now), but I will consider anyone that I don't have to have in future storylines. There will be a small number of magical characters that will die, too, but if you want to suggest one, you'd better have looked up the story (the beginning is posted at TCS) and know enough to suggest how they die, because the magical deaths are very storyline oriented.


	22. Consequences

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - It certainly is.

Stacey - They definitely are very complicated. They are a bit messed up, some more than others. There _are_ some of them who are _not_ messed up. Either for good or evil, they are very sure of who they are.

This chapter did _not_ go the way I planned. It works out right, so I guess the characters just wanted to do it their own way. See if you can figure out who it is with Cassia.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Two – Consequences

"I see I've caught your attention," Daniel commented wryly.

Cassia inhaled slowly, still having no clue how to answer. She smiled as she saw the air ripple behind Daniel, leaving behind a man in a doctor's uniform.

The man approached them and addressed Daniel. "Do you mind if I steal her away for a minute?"

Daniel turned a steely gaze at him. "Actually, I do."

Cassia pressed her lips tightly together, trying to keep from laughing. Daniel didn't know who he was up against.

"I'm sorry to hear that," the man replied, not looking the least sorry. "I will return her to you as soon as I am done talking with her."

"I said, 'no'," Daniel repeated.

Cassia put her hand on Daniel's shoulder. "Sorry, I need to talk to him." She ignored the frown on Daniel's face and walked away with the man.

Once they were far enough away that Daniel couldn't hear them she turned an annoyed look at the man. "Two months and you ignore me the entire time. Now, you show up?"

"I haven't ignored you," the man answered, sounding annoyingly patient, maybe even patronizing. "I heard you every time and when you weren't insisting that I get you out of her, I dealt with whatever needed dealing with."

Cassia scowled. "And now that I've got a way out?"

"Now that you've got a way out," he repeated, "I wanted to make sure you understood the potential consequences if you took it."

_You mean it's not set in stone,_ she retorted, mentally.

He gave her a look to say he knew what she was thinking, and didn't say anything.

She sighed. "You mean that I could lose my wings or have my soul recycled?"

"Yes," was his only reply.

"That Daniel's memory will probably be wiped, that I will probably never see the rest of my family," she continued.

He nodded.

"I've thought about this," she assured him, "and you presence has only made me sure of what I should do." She paused and looked at him. "Or have they changed their mind and decided to help me?"

He shook his head. "The decision stands."

"I figured as much," she commented, unsurprised. "So what is your advice?"

"You want advice?" he looked surprised. "You didn't want it twenty-one years ago."

"You gave it anyway," she reminded him. "Odd though it was."

"Give me a break," he laughed. "I was sixteen. All this power, all this knowledge; it's heady for a sixteen-year-old."

She chuckled. "Not exactly confidence inspiring," she admitted," but then I was only seventeen when I became a whitelighter, so I'm not really one to talk. About that advice?"

"Convince him to walk away," he instructed her. "Convince him that his search must stop."

"He knows that it's me," Cassia informed him. "And I think he knows that I'm a whitelighter. How can he know that?"

"I heard him," he admitted. "That's why I chose to intervene. I don't know how he knows about whitelighters, but you're right. He does know, but not about you. He thinks that you are you, but he's not sure. I would suggest you take advantage of that."

"And what would you do?" he asked, defiantly.

"Let's not go there," he suggested.

"Oh, no," she pushed. "We're going there. I want to know if you'd follow your own advice."

"You know the answer to that," he answered cryptically.

She chuckled. "That's what I thought. Daniel could always see through me, so there's not much chance I could convince him that I'm not his sister. If you won't even help me by talking to him . . ."

"I'm a stranger to him," he reminded her.

"And that's what you want me to convince him that I am." She shrugged. "I can't lie to him. He knows it and he's using that against me."

He was silent as he considered her. "I see the problem." He sighed. "I don't know how much good talking would do, but if you want, I can do that much." He glanced over her head at where her brother stood waiting impatiently. Daniel looked like he was about to come over there. "Is that what you want?"

Cassia cast a quick glance back at her brother.

_I'll see you at Thanksgiving. Come home early, okay?_

Cassia's eyes widened and she quickly looked away.

_Can't you stay in Sacramento? It's bad enough that we had to move, but I'm losing you to the East Coast on top of that. Who will I talk to?_

Cassia gasped. "What on earth?"

Her companion looked at her worried. "Cassia, what's wrong?"

"Memories," she whispered, "but I don't understand where they are coming from."

_It's been so quite these last few days. Are you sure you can't come home?_

"He didn't want me to go," she commented.

Her companion didn't reply. He just allowed her to talk.

"He wanted me to go to school in California." She chuckled. "And then he went to school in London for a year, right out of high school." She shook her head with a smile. "Gotta love his logic."

"You were gone," he reminder her. "Perhaps he didn't want a reminder of that conversation."

She nodded. "Perhaps." She sighed. "He's been looking for me for fifteen years. He's gathered enough information in that search to learn what a whitelighter is and that they answer to elders. A simple talking to won't discourage him. And it wouldn't be fair to him either."

"You understand what you are doing?"

She nodded. "I'm throwing away anything I might do in the future to help my brother deal with the fact that his sister is dead and he has to accept that."

"Is that what you're doing?" he asked skeptically.

She gave him a shrug. "I guess we're going to find out."

"I expect you to go Up There as soon as you get out and say good bye," he informed her.

"I have something I need to deliver first."

He gave her a look.

"I promise, it won't take long," she assured him. "It's just those papers I've been trying to get together."

A smile tugged at his lips when she said that. "Okay, then. That I'll let you do."

"I guess I'll see you Up There," she commented, before she walked away toward her brother. It was time to stop hiding, even if it meant she'd never do anything else, again.

* * *

Since it may not be entirely clear, the voice Cassia was hearing was just her own memories mixed with a guilty conscience due to the fact that she didn't make it home that Thanksgiving.

I know Cassia gave in way too easily, but she has known her brother was coming for quite some time and that knowledge has slowly bit away at her resolve.

The next chapter is one hundred percent _not_ what I intended to write. The story went back to taking a life of its own and I'm surprised they didn't get a phone call from Hank, because I Leo never made it over to the Mitchell's house. The next chapter returns to the manor and I'm a little mean to one of the characters.


	23. Relaxation and Another Infected

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Stacey - Yes, that is her final decision. You are also right that it is Kevin. It's funny. I wasn't trying to hide his identity, but there it was and so I decided to see how many people could ID him. Well done. Well done. :)

Soraya - Thank you. It was meant to be a heavy chapter. It wasn't exactly what I meant to do, but it works and I think it gives you an idea things to come, though I suspect it will be one of those things where hindsight is twenty-twenty. The guy with her is Kevin.

I mentioned before that someone did something idiotic and got themself infected (or something to that effect). Now you get to find out what I was talking about. And you get the official condition of Max.

I also have a little fun mocking their kids' "parenting" skills. More hints at events in my IF rewrite. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Three – Relaxation and Another Infected

Leo hung up the phone and turned to look at the expectant faces of his wife and her sisters. "That was Ava."

"We know," Piper retorted.

"Is the boy going to be all right?" Paige asked.

"She thinks so," Leo informed her. "Apparently she met two of his brothers when they showed up worried about him. She's a little disconcerted by the experience. One of the boys was perfectly polite, just worried. The other one was rather rude and demanded she allow him to help."

"With the surgery?" Prue asked, giving him a look of disbelief. "I find it hard to believe they wouldn't have gone to him first if he could do that."

Leo shook his head. "He wanted to donate blood."

"Unbelievable," Prue commented. "What do you know about this demon, Piper?"

"Not a lot," Piper admitted, "but I do know that the girl with him didn't freeze when Chris got me to freeze The Manor patrons yesterday, and neither did another boy with them. The other two with them did. Both, according to Wyatt, were part darklighter."

Prue looked at her startled. "How does a darklighter even get away with _claiming_ to be good?"

"Allegedly by being born one," Piper informed her. "I haven't exactly had time to research the subject. I heard all of this last night. Wyatt called before he went to bed last night."

"Speaking of Wyatt, how did he sound when he called earlier?" Paige asked.

"Like he was hiding something from me," Piper decided, looking a little annoyed at the reminder. "Sometimes I think those boys think they are the parent instead of the other way around."

Prue laughed at that. "It must be your parenting skills, because Melinda acts the same way, and she does it without magic."

Paige joined her in laughing. "I think it's a kid thing. Hank's been acting pretty weird and every time I try to talk to him, he just claims up. One time we sat there for almost an hour in complete silence. Haven't either of your girls done that?"

Prue had the grace to look chagrin. "Pat's got something she's been writing for weeks that she won't let anyone see. And of course there are all those phone calls to your kids you now tell me are about magic."

"Everything seems to have ended well," Piper commented. "Wyatt's safe and Chris has his powers back. Even those two . . . whatever they are . . . are doing all right."

"Glad to hear it," Toby's voice announced from the doorway. When all eyes had turned to stare at him, he offered them an innocent grin. "Sorry to startle you. I couldn't get anywhere near either of them without freaking out a whole bunch of people. I decided that since you were the ones who recommended the doctor to Brianna, you would be able to contact her and let me know how Max is doing. Apparently, I don't need you to do that."

"And that's the only reason you are here?"

He shook his head. "Not really." He made a face and looked rather embarrassed as he admitted, "I kind of need a dose of that antidote you made."

The other four took an automatic step back.

"I found out that the third demon, the one that Max and Brianna didn't take care of, was a minor mid level demon," Toby informed them. "I thought I could deal with him on my own . . . and I could. Problem is, apparently if you have demon blood it's not necessary to touch someone who's infected to get infected yourself. So all three of the demons behind the attack on your older son's work are gone and they won't be hurting anyone else."

"You didn't think to ask them why they chose to use something that could infect them more easily than anyone else did you?" Piper asked, bitterly.

"Actually, I did,' he returned, annoyed. "He wouldn't answer, but I did gather from what he said and what he didn't say, that it wasn't his idea."

Piper groaned. "Whose?"

He shook his head. "That I don't know. Do you have any more of that antidote, Ma'am? I'd be very much obliged if you would help me out."

She nodded. "Yes, I've got some upstairs. Did he say anything useful?"

Toby shook his head, again. "Mostly words that weren't even words, or at least not in any language I can understand. Admittedly I'm only fluent in about four, but two of those are demonic, so there was a chance."

Piper chuckled as she led the way up the attic. "One of those other languages wouldn't be Latin would it?"

He looked at her surprised. "No. English and Spanish, actually. CT's dad taught us. And I guess I'm not technically fluent in Spanish, but I can hold my own in a conversation, so fairly fluent."

"Your grasp of the English language leaves something to be desired, too," Piper told him as she opened the door to the attic. She turned around and waved her arms at him, freezing him on the stairs. That done she headed into the attic and grabbed a potion bottle containing a portion of the potion she had made earlier. He might be good like he claimed, but she didn't know him and he wasn't going into her attic. After she had closed the door behind her, she waved her hands and he unfroze.

Toby frowned and looked at her. "You could have just told me to wait for you in the room with your sisters and your husband."

"This was easier," she informed him. "How far away do I have to stand?"

"You don't have any demon blood, so you will be fine unless you touch me," he announced. He held out his hand.

Piper handed him the potion. "I couldn't get it to smell any better. Sorry."

Toby shrugged as he uncorked the potion bottle. He ignored the smell and only slightly grimaced as the taste of it hit his tongue moments later. And when the green bubbles began their way down his body, he just smiled as he corked the empty bottle. He handed it back to Piper as the green smoke exited his body. "Thank you. We'll keep an ear out for news on who might have put them up to this. If we hear anything," he shrugged. "I guess I can't promise we'll tell you, but if we don't we will have a very good reason."

It never occurred to him that one of his friends might all ready know who was behind these attacks. After all these were the people closest to him; they wouldn't hide something like that from him.

* * *

Toby was a little impatient, but at least the three demons are all dead. And yes, that is the official word on Max. He will survive this encounter.

In the next chapter it's back to Cassia as she returns to her brother. She learns a little bit more of what he knows and he reveals his plan to get her out of there, which really amuses her. Curious to find out how that conversation goes.


	24. Truth, Love, and Other Illegal Things

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - Toby generally is polite, yes. Brianna appreciate's the sentiment.

Stacey - True, you did pretty much know he was going to be all right, but it's always nice to know it's official. ;)

I had the hardest time figuring out how to get Cassia out of the mental instatution. It helped that her sister was the head physician at a major hospital and that her brother-in-law was the lieutenant governor of California. And her brother was head of a major corporation. While Daniel did all the looking, Ash (Dr. Ashley Kinsley) and Belle (Mrs. Anthony Quinn, second lady of California) were plotting with him all along the way.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Four – Truth, Love, and Other Illegal Things

With one last look at her friend and boss, Cassia returned to her brother. "Do Ash and Belle know about this?" she asked without preamble.

Daniel looked at her surprised. "So you admit it?"

She nodded. "Do you have even the slightest idea what I am risking here?"

He sighed. "I'm sorry, Cass. I just couldn't let it go. I had to know."

"You realize that this will likely be the only conversation we will have and most likely you won't even remember it tomorrow," she pressed.

He nodded.

"Then, why?" she asked looking at him. "I don't get that. Why do it at all, Danny? Why not leave it as is, with the knowledge that most likely I was out there somewhere, helping people?"

"Because I couldn't," he informed her. "Cass, do you have any idea how hard it is to . . ?"

Cassia gave him a look. "Really? You have to ask that?"

He made a face. "It wasn't adding up," he announced. "No self respecting whitelighter would get caught on film."

"Oh, so not true," she laughed. "But what do you know about whitelighters, anyway?"

"As much as I could learn," he hedged.

"Do you even know any witches?"

"Other than the obvious?" he pressed.

"And who is the obvious?" she asked, curious.

"A couple of sisters who are former classmates of ours and their younger sisters," he said only slightly cryptically.

She chuckled. "Oh, those obvious. Yeah, other than those, though I didn't know you knew about them."

"Apparently they are some sort of big deal in the world of magic, so when I researched whitelighters, I learned about them," Daniel informed her. "And apparently my classmate married their whitelighter, so apparently personal relationships are allowed."

"Not even close," she informed him. "Their relationship was one hundred percent forbidden. And he's not in contact with anyone from his past even now."

"I doubt any of them are alive," Daniel retorted.

"Actually, he's got a living nephew who has living descendants," she passed on. "And his ex-wife's kids by her second husband are alive and would recognize him from pictures, though of course they never met him. And I'm pretty sure all of their descendants would recognize him, too."

Daniel stared at her and then he just shrugged. He didn't much care to hear about his former classmate's former whitelighter husband. It was his currently whitelighter sister that he was interested in. "Who is that guy, the one who wanted to talk to you? And what did he say that changed your mind about answering my questions?"

"That's my boss, Kevin," she grinned. "He just wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into. I have to get out of here, Danny."

"He seems . . . nice," Daniel glanced past her to where Kevin had turned his attention to a young lady who was clawing the ground with her bare hands.

Cassia smiled and turned to look at Kevin. "He is nice. You'd like him, Danny."

"I doubt it," he decided. "After all, he's one of the elders that brought you back and refused to let us see you, again. If they hadn't done that, we could have at least found someone to summon you, eventually."

Cassia giggled. "Considering he was still in diapers at the time, I'd say Kevin had a pretty air tight alibi for that."

Daniel frowned. "What do you mean he was still in diapers? Doesn't elder imply a certain age?"

"Generally," she agreed, "but there are some cases like Kevin's where that's not the case."

Daniel exhaled slowly. "What happens when I get you out of here?"

"Can you do that?"

"Immediately," he replied confidently.

"Impressive," she commented. "How?"

He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it to her.

Cassia took the envelope and looked at it. It was addressed to her parent's home in Sacramento. She glanced at the post mark, September 3, 2009. She looked up at him. "What's this?"

"Look inside," he urged her.

She shrugged and slid a folded piece of paper out of it. She unfolded it and realized that it was a birth certificate. She read her name, Cassia Marie Reynolds, listed. She shrugged, again, and looked up at him, again. "I don't get it."

"Look at the dates."

She looked down at the place where date of birth was listed and her eyes widened. "2009! Since when was I born in 2009?"

He put a finger to his lips. "Shh. Do you think anyone looking at you would believe that you were born in 1970."

"No," she admitted. "But this is illegal."

"So Tony informed me repeatedly," Daniel agreed, "but he still helped me with it. Most of the information is identical to what is on your real birth certificate. Out of necessity I had to claim you were born at home, but since you actually were born in Sacramento, I didn't have to change the city."

"And the fact that your 'younger' sister was born when your mom was in her sixties was irrelevant how?" she pressed.

"Dealt with but 'you' don't know anything about it, so don't worry about it," he shrugged.

"And the fact that I share a name with your older sister and I'm identical to 'her', how does that fit in?"

"Also dealt with," he assured her. "I'll explain later."

"There is no later," she informed him. "We leave here and I have to go before a meeting Up There where they will decide my fate for disobeying one of their bigger rules. I won't have another chance to talk to you, Danny."

"We made a story between us that you were a clone of our dead sister," he admitted sheepishly.

Cassia stared at him for several seconds, mouth gaping. "And they say I'm the one who's insane."

"If it works, I don't care," he admitted.

"It's illegal," she reminded him. "It was illegal then and it's illegal now," she pressed. "Not to mention how do you explain a twenty year gap between my death and when you would have somehow used by DNA to create this mythical clone."

"Trust me, okay?" he requested.

She shook her head with a slight smile on it. "Not for a minute, little brother." Before he could respond she reached up and hugged him tight. "I love you. You may not remember this conversation, but you will remember that. Thanks for coming for me, Danny."

He hugged her back. "I guess there's no time like the present, huh. I love you, Cass. Let's . . . I'd say get you home, but I guess that's not really an option, so let's at least get you out of here. Ready?"

She nodded. "I'm ready." She glanced behind her and saw no sign of Kevin anywhere. He trusted her. As much as it would pain her to leave Daniel so quickly, she would do as she must and that was something she must. She only hoped that when this was all over she would still be allowed to see them when they weren't looking from time to time.

* * *

To be honest, I have no idea of the current legality of cloning. I think it is illegal (in the US. I have even less idea of it's legality outside of the US, but since this would have happened in the US, only the US laws are relevant.) And, yes, had she thought of it, Cassia's mom would have done exactly what Ash, Belle, and Daniel's backstory describes.

What is your thoughts on that backstory? Do you think Cassia should have done what she did? (Kevin doesn't, but admits he would have done the exact same thing in her place.)

It's a little hard to describe the next chapter, but it connects to this one and it will put someone into a small panic.


	25. Time to Go

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - JD? No, he should be fine with it. He'll scold Cassia most likely, considering the guy is so fastidious that he hides from Leo rather than explain what's going on, but he's not going to be mad at her.

Stacey - Noble? I wouldn't have chosen that word, but it's certainly brave to go ahead and tell her brother. Will it end up being the right thing? Time will tell. Cassia is in a rather unique situation since her family found about magic and sought her out. The only way she really would have gotten rid of Daniel would have been lie to his face and even then, he might not have believed her, so really . . . she didn't have a lot of options, but if she had tried hard enough, she probably could have convinced him eventually.

Normal would be the last thing anyone would call this day, but both Emily and Chris are going to head to work before their day is over. Emily is not going to like what Callie has to say. Before Chris is going anywhere, Cassia has something to give him, something she thinks will be very useful very soon.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Five – Time to Go

Emily scrambled into the kitchen. She would have run past Callie Ranard, the day chef, but Callie's voice called her to a halt. Emily turned around and nibbled on her bottom lip. "Sorry, Callie. It took me almost an hour to get out of the parking lot at the museum. Who knew I'd be trying to leave . . ." Emily stopped seeing Callie's palm facing her.

"I'm sure it's a fascinating story," Callie commented, "but right now, I don't care. Chris promised he'd still be showing up, but he's not here yet either and I have to go." She pulled off her apron. "You're in charge until he gets here."

Emily's eyes widened. "What?"

"You heard me," Callie brushed aside Emily's disbelief. "I suggest you put Ty in charge of the kitchen for the time being. He can cook everything on the menu and he's been flirting with the new girl."

"Addison?" Emily stared at Callie shocked, "but . . ."

"Not Addison," Callie denied. "The poor little rich girl doesn't start until Monday. And if she was working tonight, I'd suggest putting her in the kitchen. Have you tried her cooking? Oh, wow!"

"So what new girl?" Emily asked, feeling a bit over whelmed. Chris had better make it there fast.

"Her name is Lindsey," Callie announced as she reached into Piper's office and grabbed her purse off a hook. "I'll let Ty introduce you. She's sixteen."

"Why are you putting me in charge?" Emily asked, getting to the biggest question on her mind.

"You just so happen to be the only person on the staff who is here and staying for the night who is over the age of eighteen. Chelsea will be here in an hour, but I'm not waiting that long." Callie pulled her keys out of her pocket and headed toward the back door. She was gone before Emily could real form any sort of protest.

Emily stared at the door for several second and then the door from the main room swung open and she found herself very eager for Chris to get there.

* * *

At that moment, Chris was standing outside the Psychiatric hospital with JD. Chris had wanted to leave, but JD had convinced him to stay. It didn't matter much. He was beginning to not care what JD thought. He needed to leave. It wasn't so much that he disliked JD or even that he was bored. He just needed to get away from the supernatural for a while now that everyone was safely cured. And he didn't see why they needed him here. JD hadn't said much other than to convince him to stay and Cassia didn't need his help any more.

That was when the phone in his pocket began to ring. It was funny how little he remembered that phone, but today he'd needed it. He pulled it out of his pocket, giving JD an apologetic look.

JD shrugged. Conversation was not necessary. He took the time to close his eyes and checked on his charges.

Chris put his phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Wow, you answered a lot quicker this time," Emily commented. "When are you coming here?"

Chris glanced at JD. "Um."

"Chris, you can't leave me alone here," Emily pleaded. "Callie left me here, in charge. I am not prepared for this."

Chris frowned. "She left you in charge?"

"She did," Emily confirmed. "Please say you'll be here soon."

Chris glanced over at JD, again. "I'm not sure. I'll try."

"Everyone is cured, right?" she asked, concerned. "You left the museum hours ago."

"I know," he agreed. "But we found others who needed the cure. And then I ran into another person in need of help," _which I couldn't give her._

"Well, hurry," she pleaded. "I'm terrified they are going to realize I can't do this."

Chris looked down at his wrist watch. "Ten minutes," he announced, catching JD's attention. "I will be there in ten minutes."

JD frowned, "But . . ."

"You know where I'll be," Chris reminded him, holding the phone away from his mouth. He put the phone next to his car just quick enough to get the tail end of Emily's "thank you." He sighed. "I'll see you soon, Emily."

As soon as they hung up he felt JD looking at him.

"Ten minutes?"

Chris shrugged. "It's clear that you don't actually need me here. She does."

JD sighed, but he did nod.

"Since we are just waiting, why don't you tell me about yourself," Chris suggested. "How long have you been a whitelighter?"

"Over twenty-one years," JD said after several seconds. "You can ask Sam about me."

Chris raised an eyebrow in surprised. "Sam Wilder?"

JD nodded. "He was my whitelighter back in the fifties."

"Fifties?" Chris blinked. "You don't look that old."

"JD chuckled. "Like I said, asked Sam. I was born less than a decade after your dad, but I died at twenty-two over a year after you were born." He glanced behind him as the doors to the psychiatric hospital opened. "Looks like you are going to be returning to work soon."

Cassia was headed toward them with Daniel. In her hand was a paper bag. When she stepped in front of Chris she smiled. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I'm kind of stunned that Danny's plan actually worked."

"Would you quit calling me that," Daniel wrinkled his nose. "You're making me feel like a ten-year-old."

She reached over and chucked his chin. "You're my little brother. I have to have some way to remind you of that."

He smiled. "Do you have to leave?"

"In a minute, I'm afraid," she replied with a sad smile. She turned to look at Chris. "I have something for your dad," she informed him as she pulled a manila envelope out of the paper bag. "Could you see to it that he gets this?"

Chris frowned as he took the envelope from her. "What is it?"

She allowed herself a mischievous grin. "Take a look."

Chris opened the envelope and looked inside. He reached in and pulled out a small rectangular piece of plastic. As he looked at it, his eyes widened. "Is this real?"

"Real enough," she assured him. "It's all real. I went to the elders when I found out what he was planning and I got permission to pursue this. I think I kind of guilted them into it, but this is something they should have done years ago, so I have no problem with it."

Chris dropped the item back in the envelope. He pulled out a piece of paper and scanned it. He held it up to her. "I suppose the elders made this?"

She shook her head with a laugh. "No, actually that would be the United States government."

Chris looked at her surprised. "The United States government? How'd you manage that?"

She shrugged. "Don't worry about it. It's more legal than the stuff my brother pulled. At least I went through the proper legal channels." She gave her brother a look of amusement. "He browbeat people using our brother-in-law's name." Seeing Chris' continued hesitation, she urged him, "Go ahead. Bring it to your dad. He needs it."

Chris peered into the envelope for a second before asking, "You're sure these are real?"

She nodded. "I'm sure. Don't worry about it."

He smiled, still a bit unsure.

"Didn't you have to get going?" JD asked, defusing the silence.

Chris nodded. Envelope in hand he orbed out.

JD turned around to look at Cassia. "Since I'm sure your time is limited, I'm out of here, too." With that he orbed out leaving the two siblings alone.

"He's right," Cassia commented as she turned to Daniel, "I can't stay long."

"I know," he admitted, a lump in his throat. "If you ever need a place to stay, even if you can't tell us, you're welcome at my home. You're my sister. Even your elders can't change that."

Cassia wrapped her arms around him and then got up on her tip toes to give him a kiss. "At least I get the chance to say good-bye this time."

Daniel hugged her back. "I love you, Cass. So do Ash and Belle." When he let her go, he pulled out his wallet and looked until he found a picture. He removed the picture and handed it to her. "Keep this. I can get another."

She took the picture from him and looked at it. The faces of her three siblings, their spouses, and their various children looked back at her. She grinned at Daniel as she tucked it into her pocket. "Thank you. I love you, Danny." She gave him another hug before she orbed out.

Daniel followed the trail she left with his eyes and gulped. He sighed as he headed toward his car, wishing things had been different.

"The families of most whitelighters never even imagine whitelighters exist let alone know their lost loved one is one," a teenager boy leaning against Daniel's car informed him.

Daniel frowned at him. "Who are you?"

"Sorry for being brash with you earlier," the boy commented. "I needed to make sure she knew what she was getting herself into before she answered you."

Daniel frowned. "You're the elder? You look like a twelve-year-old."

He shrugged. "My name is Kevin Shepherd. And I'm older than I look."

"Right," Daniel scowled. "Whitelighters don't age because they're dead, so elders don't either." He looked up at Kevin and asked. "What moron would put a twelve-year-old in a position of authority?"

Kevin was silent for several seconds. Finally, in a soft voice he replied, "If you must know, I was thirteen when I got this job, but it's not about my age, which is closer to what you saw earlier than to this. I'm here to give you a choice to make."

Daniel looked at him curiously. "You mean you aren't here to erase my memory?"

Kevin shook his head. "Not at present, that is unless of course you want me to." When Daniel shook his head, Kevin continued with, "Cassia is going to go before the elders, myself included, and we will decide what will happen as a result of this day." Kevin suspected had she not been under him, then he would not have been included. "To my knowledge nothing like this has ever happened before. Most of the time whitelighters come from families with no magical backgrounds," Kevin informed him with a curious look. "How'd you out about all this anyone?"

"Does it matter?" Daniel returned.

"I guess not," Kevin admitted. "I was just curious."

"You said something about choices," Daniel pressed.

Kevin nodded. "Choices. Right. You already know you have the choice of forgetting everything about this."

"The choices I'll actually like, please," Daniel gave him an annoyed look. "Otherwise I am heading home, because this conversation is not worth it."

Kevin sighed. "I need your word that you will not tell your family that you found her."

Daniel's frown deepened. "They know what I've been doing. They'll ask."

"Put them off," Kevin suggested.

"Why should I?" Daniel growled.

"Because," Kevin informed him, indicating up with his chin, "They'll look on it better if They feel They can trust you. And as I said, most whitelighter's families never know anything about whitelighters or even magic. It's highly unlikely that They will let you see her, again, but it might help her, if they know her brother can be trusted. Besides, if they decided to wipe your memory," he continued, ignoring Daniel's annoyed look, "it's better if they don't have to do it to your whole family or even more people."

"Why can't you just let us be?" Daniel snarled. "She can do her job, look out for her charges, and still have a chance to spend time with her family. We won't tell anyone about this, about magic. I think the fact that we haven't yet, should tell you that."

"And if we did, how would you even begin to explain your dead sister showing up?"

Daniel grinned at that and pulled out the same piece of paper he had shown Cassia. "With this."

Kevin read it and chuckled. "Imaginative, but I don't think that answers all the questions."

"Oh, I think I've got all those questions covered," Daniel assured him. "Give me a chance to prove it."

"This isn't going to go the way you want it to," Kevin informed him, feeling sorry for the guy. "Enjoy the knowledge of knowing she's all right, while you have it."

"And how long is that?" Daniel wanted to know. He was pretty fed up with the whole thing.

Kevin shrugged. "Time moves differently Up There. It could be weeks or even months."

"At least mention my idea," Daniel requested. "I explained it to Cass. She can explain it to you."

"Nothing will come of it," Kevin repeated, "but I'll bring it up."

Daniel sighed. "I don't want to forget. Even if I won't be seeing her, again, I don't want to forget."

Kevin nodded. "I'll keep that in mind. If it helps, I understand."

"You can't possibly," Daniel scowled at him. "When have you ever been in my situation?"

"I haven't," Kevin replied. "I've been in hers." Before Daniel could form a reply Kevin disappeared in blue-white lights. He knew Daniel would do what he asked, at least for a while.

Daniel closed his eyes for several seconds. He was not looking forward to Belle's call asking how his day had been, but if it helped Cass, he'd keep that conversation completely mundane.

* * *

Chris strode into The Manor. He walked past Becky Davis, a girl who worked as a greeter with the barest of grins.

"Chris, you're late getting here," Becky commented.

Chris stopped and looked at her. "Sorry, it's been a long day. I promised Emily I'd relieve her as soon as I arrived."

"She didn't seem all that upset about being in charge," Becky commented.

Chris gave her a look.

Becky shrugged. "Okay, so I haven't been in the main room since I started work. Still, how much trouble could she be having? We all like her."

Chris smiled and made a tiny sound of appreciation. "I'm sure she would be glad to hear that. Has it been busy tonight?"

"A bit," Becky admitted. "And Ty's been a pretty distracted all night," she added with a laugh. "The new girl's caught his eye."

"New girl?" Chris questioned. "Mom didn't mention a new girl."

Becky shrugged. "Her name's Lindsey. She's a waitress."

Chris raised an eyebrow. "Okay, well, I'd better go meet her. Anything else I should know?"

Becky considered this and shook her head. "Not really. The rooms full in there, but I think most everyone has their food, so it's mostly getting drinks and stuff."

Chris nodded. "Thanks." With another quick smile at her he headed into the main part of the restaurant. He headed straight for the kitchen. Inside he found Ty Addington stirring something in a skillet.

Emily was balancing plates on a tray. She looked up at the sound of the door opening. She grinned at the sight of him. "Finally. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to show."

"I told you I'd be here soon," he reminded her.

"Is everything all right?"

His smile broadened. "Yes, everything's all right."

"You're brother?"

"Probably home by now," he decided.

"You don't know?"

He shook his head. "I don't check in with him all the time. Once I knew everything was going to be all right over there, I had other things to finish. You hear from your brother?"

She grinned. "Both of them actually. And apparently, they had a long talk with each other. Nate convinced Matt that I don't need quit my job here."

"Well, that's good," he concluded. "We don't want to lose you here." He turned to look at Ty. "Would you like some help with that?"

Emily smiled and headed back into the kitchen with her tray.

Ty shook his head. "Na, I'm fine. You want me back out on the floor after this?"

Chris nodded. "You're not really supposed to be in the kitchen, so let's not press our luck. Maybe in a few years when you are older and it's, legal to have you back here."

"If it's not legal to have me work back here, then why is it required that I can cook in order to work here?" Ty wanted to know.

Chris shrugged. "We've been over this before. It's legal to have you do some things in the kitchen, just not all. Once you turn eighteen, you can do most everything, but until then, you are still required to know how to help out in the kitchen when needed. I appreciate you doing this and I'm sorry that you don't like the rules, but I didn't make them."

Ty sighed. He looked at Chris for a moment and made a face. "No, you just break them when it suits you."

Chris glanced around the kitchen and gave Ty an amused look. "And you don't?"

Ty looked at him for several seconds before he started to chuckle. "Yeah, I guess you're right. So back to waiting tables, huh?"

Chris nodded with a smile. "Yep, back to waiting tables. You stick around here, and we'll get you in this kitchen more often, but you've still got to wait until you turn eighteen."

Ty nodded, letting Chris take over the stove and he changed out of his apron and cleaned up so he could head into the main room to wait tables. "Give me time. I'll have your place in this kitchen in a few years."

Chris chuckled. "We'll see. In the mean time, thanks for helping out." Once Ty had left the room, Chris turned to the food on the stove. It was so nice to be able to relax and work. Chris chuckled as he appreciated the irony of that thought. Most people didn't think of work as place to relax.

* * *

An introduction of sorts to a new employee at the manor. I can't make a big deal every time Piper hires a new employee, but I need to at least mention when someone joins the crew at The Manor who will have some sort of relevance.

While inside the mental hospital Kevin had glamoured himself to look older, but once outside he let the glamour go and returned to the more comfortable teenage version of himself.

What do you think is in the envelope Cassia gave Chris for Leo? Can you identify what he pulled out?

In the next chapter, you've heard Seth's opinion of his dad's girlfriend. You've heard what Peter thinks of his mom. You've even seen Derek's reaction to things she has said. Now, you get to meet Danielle Josephs, Derek's girlfriend and Peter's mom.


	26. Dinner with Dad's Girlfriend

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - I will take that into consideration if I quit needing her for storylines ('cause she's been _soooo_ important to storylines so far). I am very curious to see how (if at all) this chapter alters your opinion . . . though if you want her dead you can't dislike her much more, now can you?

Stacey - Well, I like at least one more elder . . . but then I'm weird, however I think when I'm done with him, you will like this elder, too. And I loved Ramus (the elder Kevin got his powers from). He was fun. Yes, Callie can be uptight at times. She's fun to mess with. In this particular case I will let you in on a secret . . . Callie's running late for a date. That doesn't explain away all of her behavior and only some of it this time, but it is why she's so desperate to leave that she leaves Emily in charge. Yes, feel sorry for Emily. Fortunately no one takes advantage of her before Chris get's there, but she's completely out of her element. I am slowly building a staff for the restaurant. There are people, especially on the day crew that you will never hear about, but when I look at some of the teenagers who work here or will work here in the near future or some of those in their twenties, thirties, fourties, or fifties I see where they will be going. I see the route that will make one of them a great chef. I see marriages and children. I see managers and wait staff and greeters. I see how some of them will leave and how others will probably be there for the rest of their lives (or at least until they retire). And that's all backstory . . . I make up the most amazing backstories (in my mind) that you will probably only see the tip of the iceburg, because this isn't focused on their stories. This isn't telling you about Chelsea Michaels marriage or the new baby she has that is the reason she was on maternity leave. Ty's dating life will show up, but only as it relates to things at work or . . . magic. You will probably never see much of Callie's life outside The Manor or even Drinka's and Drinka knows the Halliwell's secret, since both of them are mostly on the day crew and not seen as much. On to this chapter. I look foward to seeing what opinion you form about Danielle.

Unless you already know the answer I want you to think about this. In the next episode there are things involving Cassia's trial before the Elders that only slightly connect to the story at large. Because they would ruin what's going to happen after them, I'm pretty sure I won't be putting them in the main story, but would you like it if I put them at the end as a "deleted scene"?

Seth has complained that he doesn't like his dad's girlfriend (Peter's mom), but here's your chance to decide for youself.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Six – Dinner with Dad's Girlfriend

Seth looked across the table at his dad's girlfriend, Danielle Josephs. Her short red hair was groomed to perfection. Her small smooth hands were professionally manicured. But what really stood out wasn't even her obviously pregnant belly due to eight months of growing a baby. It was the small frown on her rouged lips.

"Derek tells me that you two spent the day together," Danielle commented. Looking at Peter she asked, "Did you enjoy yourself?"

Seth looked at her surprised. Maybe having a second child was going to have a positive effect on her.

Peter glanced at his brother on his right, before looking at his mother. "I showed Seth how to do an internet search."

Seth rolled his eyes. "I know how to do a search."

Peter shrugged. "Right. That's why I was the one on the computer."

"I was trying to include you," Seth returned.

Danielle frowned. "What did you research?"

The two brothers looked at each other. It hadn't occurred to either that she would actually pursue this line of questioning.

"Unusual stones," Seth mumbled, wanting to be as vague as possible.

"Ancient mythology," Peter announced at the same time.

Danielle frowned and glanced over at Derek.

Derek leaned back, a smile on his face. He wasn't entirely sure what his sons had spent their day doing, but he was sure that they could figure this one out on their own.

"Unusual stones in ancient mythology," Seth amended.

"I see," Danielle commented hesitantly. "Did you find anything interesting?" She looked a little like she had forced the question out.

The brothers were silent for several seconds before Peter asked in a quiet voice, "Do you really want to know?" He gave her a hopefully look, because despite not thinking he should tell his mother what they did over the day, he wanted her to be interested.

She sighed. She didn't really answer. She just turned to Derek and announced, "My mother called last week."

Seth winced as he watched the downcast look on his little brother's face.

Derek didn't respond and waited for her to continue.

"My cousin told her about a wonderful career opportunity and my mother believes I should take it."

Derek sat very still. He knew what was coming. He didn't like the way she was broaching it, but he knew what was coming.

"She believes being a mother has been putting a serious strain on my career and that I shouldn't let that hold me back any more," Danielle announced.

Seth watched his little brother. The woman was a moron.

"She says I am putting too much into the relationship . . ."

"That's enough!" Seth demanded, not willing to listen to her hurt his brother any more, even unknowingly as it seem to be. He saw his little brother glaring across the table at her and saw Derek's white knuckles clutching his fork. Seth sent a glare at his dad. Derek should have been the one to end this conversation. Seth was beginning to wonder if his dad had taken too much abuse from her that he had lost the ability to stand up to her, even when it was his son that was being verbally abused. "You have no relationship with your son. You don't make any effort. You can't seriously consider twice monthly dinners where you almost never say anything to him as a relationship. Peter barely knows you."

Her nostrils flared. "I am leaving for New York at the end of June after this baby is born," she informed him. "It's an excellent opportunity and I'm going to take it. I am also inviting the three of you to join me, in order that I might gain a relationship with my son." She glared back at Seth. "Derek has agreed to consider this. I hope that you will decide to come. Your father tells me you are between jobs right now and I know you are out of school, so that shouldn't be a problem."

"No," Peter announced.

Danielle looked at him surprised. "No?"

"I don't want to move," he announced. "I have friends here. I like it here."

"You'll like New York," she informed him. "It's a beautiful city."

He shook his head. "No, I won't."

"You can't know that," she argued.

He ignored her. "And Seth may be out of school, but I'm not. I don't want to start a new school."

"You can call your friends from school," Danielle reminded him. "They've made some pretty cool advances in telephone technology since I was a girl."

He shook his head harder.

"I think you should," Seth announced in a quiet voice.

Peter turned to look at him. The look on his face was hurt, as if Seth had just betrayed him.

Seth heaved in a deep breath.

"No," Peter breathed at him, tears threatening his eyes. "How could you even suggest it?"

"If there's even a chance . . ."

"You can't really think there is," Peter protested.

"I don't know," Seth admitted. He looked across the table at Danielle. "You have given us a lot to think about. This isn't a light decision to be making. We won't be making any decisions tonight." He looked at his dad and his brother. "Will we?" Ironically, while he thought this might be good for his brother, he suspected it might be disastrous for his dad. The three of them were going to have to do a lot of talking, but before that went anywhere, he needed to talk with his dad. He needed to know if he was being an idiot for even considering that she might genuinely want to change ways.

* * *

So what do you think? Seth is trying to give her a chance, but should they really move with her? Will she actually try and be a good mom to Peter and the new baby? She hasn't so far, but maybe she's changed. What do you think?

In the next chapter we're back to the manor where surprisingly we're going to learn a little something about Darryl.


	27. Plan to Relax

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - Prior to this, the plan was already for Derek to raise the baby, so if he doesn't join her, she's not taking the new baby with her.

Stacey - That seems like a good way of looking at it, waiting until you see if her actions match her words. You and Seth both. Derek wasn't too pleased with how she brought that up either. He's willing to consider this, but mostly if he thinks it will be good for his son. Peter's opinion is pretty obvious, but that doesn't always tell you the full story. A decision will be made in the next episode, so you'll find out what they are going to do there.

In the other time line Melinda was closest to her dad, so it's only natural that he's the one she's reaching out to the most in this one. A little surprising as to who else she's been getting to know. See if you recognize some names here.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Seven – Plan to Relax

Piper squeezed Prue in a hug. When she let go, she turned to Paige and gave her a hug, too. "Don't be strangers. Tell Andy and Henry that we are having a family dinner sometime in the next week."

"That's pretty optimistic," Paige teased.

Piper looked at her surprised. "Optimistic?"

"To think we can all coordinate our schedules enough to gather for one night next week," she explained with a mischievous laugh.

"Not at all," Piper shook her head. "Are you telling me that you are busy every night next week?"

Paige made a face. "No, we're free."

Piper looked at her surprised. "As in every night?"

Paige wrinkled her nose and nodded. "I'd prefer to avoid school nights seeing as I do have three high school students who have home work and finals quickly approaching, but yes, we're free every night."

Piper looked at Prue.

Prue shrugged. "I have a day job. Andy doesn't have one yet, and the girls aren't old enough yet, so other than the school factor, we're free, too."

"Don't forget my offer," Piper commented.

Prue smiled. "I won't. I'll discuss it with Andy tonight. We aren't doing anything until schools out. It's hard enough to start them in the middle of the school year without changing, again, after only two months."

"I'll talk to Ladybug, see if the three of them can join us," Piper commented, bringing a sad look to the faces of all three sisters as the thought of their missing sister. "I'll even invite my daughter if anyone can find her." She paused and looked at her sisters. "Do either of you know where she is?"

Paige shook her head. "She's called a couple times, but she's never mentioned where she was. And I can't sense her, so that won't help any either."

Prue sighed. "She's been very secretive whenever she's called. Pat thinks she's hitchhiking across the country, but none of us has any idea where she was."

Piper frowned. "Sounds about accurate. She hasn't told me anything specific."

"She was in Chicago two days ago," Leo announced as he entered the room. When three sets of eyes turned to him, he told them, "She told me that she was helping Helena Morris prepare for a baby shower Helena is putting together for her sister-in-law."

"She knows Darryl?" Piper asked surprised. "No, wait. Darryl knows her."

Leo chuckled and shook his head. "Actually, I don't think they've met. I'm not even sure she knew Darryl's connection to us until I mentioned it. She met Helena when Mike and Helena where visiting New York two months ago."

"She was in New York?" Piper asked surprised.

"For almost a week," Leo confirmed. "She went there after she left St. Augustine."

"She tells you where she is?" Piper commented, sounding a little hurt.

"Sometimes," he shrugged. "It just comes up in conversation."

"Do you have a number to reach her then?" Piper wanted to know.

"She was staying with Mike and Helena," Leo informed her. "The number is on the fridge. She'll call if she gets a new number. She wouldn't accept a cell, so I made her agree to keep me informed of how to reach her. I told you that."

Piper frowned. "You did?"

He nodded. "And every time she has given me a new number I have changed the one on the fridge."

Piper looked a bit embarrassed. "I must have missed that." She looked at her sisters. "I guess I'll be able to contact Melinda myself." She gave both of her sisters another hug and let them leave. Once she closed the door behind them, she headed back into the living room. "How was your day before it was hijacked by demons?"

Leo sat down on the couch and sighed. "It started out well. The little girl I was helping seems to be taking her mother's death well."

"But?" Piper pressed. "I hear a 'but'." When Leo didn't answer after several seconds she considered the plans his letter had mentioned. "The college?"

Leo nodded. "They wanted some things I should have thought about."

"Like what?" Piper asked. College admission wasn't exactly a fond memory.

"Such as school records," he replied with a sigh. "And even though I went to school, those records will do me no good." He looked at her sadly. "It doesn't look like I will get into medical school after all."

"Did you tell her you didn't have the records?" Piper asked, sitting down next to him.

He shook his head. "I told her, I'd get back to her, but I won't. I have nothing to show her."

"Maybe there's another way," Piper suggested, doubtfully.

He sighed. "Maybe." It sure didn't look that way.

* * *

Did you want to know what was in that envelope that Cassia gave Chris? When Chris arrives home after work he wants Wyatt to join him in order to show Leo it. Think it might cheer Leo up?

Oh, you might want to take note of when this conversation takes place and think back to it when you look at the dates and events of the next episode.


	28. Identity

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Stacey - I quite agree. I look foward to seeing what you think of how I handle that.

Soraya - Absolutely. I figured the Halliwells aren't the only ones who have moved foward in their lives, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let the Morris family stay out of contact with them now that they are back in their lives.

Sometimes you just feel that some things shouldn't have been left out. In this chapter Leo is given the envelope from Cassia along with some information about Cassia that no one else (in his family) knows.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Eight – Identity

Wyatt was sitting down watching TV. After the day he'd had, he wanted nothing more than to just relax. He started to blink, but stopped. He scooted over on the couch so that he reached up onto the book case and grabbed the remote. He was about to change the channel, when the door opened.

A moment later, Chris entered the front room. "How did things go after I left?"

Wyatt chuckled. "It was just a really strange day. Andrew already knew about magic, which was really odd. And now Nathan's got a lot to deal with, since he now knows about magic, but I think he can handle it."

"What about the woman who you were attacking when I found you?" Chris wanted to know.

"Olivia?"

Chris shrugged.

"I don't think she accepted my explanation," Wyatt admitted, "but I don't think she'll press any harder, mostly because of her own actions. She remembers what she did while she was cursed."

"And Emily's brother?" Chris chuckled and shook his head. "Never mind. Emily assured me that he's fine."

"He seems to be unwilling to question what actually happened today," Wyatt commented, deciding to answer anyway. "I like the guy. He seems to have a good head on his shoulders, even if it is a naïve one that doesn't want to know what's out there."

"Anyone else we should worry about?" Chris asked as he reached up onto the book case and pulled out the envelope that Cassia had given him.

Wyatt shook his head. "The police have all sorts of theories, but nothing dangerous I don't think. And other than being bothered by phone calls trying to find out what was going on inside, Kelly enjoyed the quiet. Since she was the only one inside who actually managed to not know anything that was going on, she's the least likely to be any trouble. That's pretty much everyone. How'd it go after you left the museum?"

"Well enough," Chris assured him. "Mr. Hollis trusts me and Mr. Lawson was willing to try just about anything, so the fact that I was there was pretty much enough for him. Jarod was a slight bit harder, but it was after I helped him that things got weird."

"Weird?"

Chris nodded. He handed Wyatt the envelope as he sat down.

Wyatt looked down at the envelope and over at the television. He sighed and grabbed up the remote. TV was going to have to wait. He clicked the off button and took the envelope from his brother. "What is it?"

"It's for Dad," Chris informed him. "I only looked at a couple of things in there, but I honestly never thought I'd be so thrilled to have a whitelighter tell me what to do."

"Whitelighter?" Wyatt looked at him surprised. "How'd you manage to run into a whitelighter at a mental hospital . . . or did he come looking for you there?"

"She," Chris corrected, "and no, she was there already. That demon that switched us around a couple of months ago switched her and some others around about twenty years ago. She wanted my help."

"And did you help her?"

Chris shook his head. "I tried, but I didn't really end up being much use to her. Before she left, she gave me this."

Wyatt pulled out a piece of paper from the envelope and began reading aloud, "This is to certify that Leo James Wyatt . . . is Dad's middle name 'James'?"

Chris shrugged. "No idea."

Wyatt shrugged in return and started over, "This is to certify that Leo James Wyatt, having honorably completed . . ." Wyatt stopped and frowned. "Nineteen-ninety-two?"

"That's what I read," Chris agreed.

"She gave dad a forged high school graduation certificate?" Wyatt stared at his brother.

Chris chuckled. "According to her, she didn't forge anything."

Wyatt gave his brother a look.

Chris's grin broadened. "She had the United States government do it for her."

"And the rest of it is like this?"

"Presumably," Chris agreed. "I only looked at the birth certificate and the driver's license . . . did you know Dad doesn't have one?"

Wyatt shook his head. "Doesn't he?"

"I don't think so. At least I remember Mom mentioning having to renew hers, but never Dad and I've never seen Dad's license. Want to join me to bring it to him?"

Wyatt looked down at the diploma in his hand. He chuckled. "Yeah, I want to see Dad react to this. Why'd she do this? Did she say? Or was this the elder's idea?"

"According to her, it was her idea, but she got permission from the elders at the very beginning."

Wyatt put the envelope on the coffee table with the diploma on top of it. He looked up at his brother and made a sound for him to continue.

Chris gave him a look. "Are you coming or not?"

Wyatt put the remote on the coffee table and stood up. "Coming, definitely coming. I want to see this."

Once Chris had stood up he picked up both the diploma and the envelope so that he could put the diploma back in the envelope. "Ready?"

Wyatt nodded.

Chris disappeared in blue and white orb lights. He was quickly followed by his brother. When the reappeared it was in the manor's living room where their parents were sitting on the couch.

Piper was leaning against Leo. She moved her head enough to look at her sons straight up and down and raised an eyebrow at them.

Not quite sure how else to answer the implied question Chris turned his attention to his dad. "Dad, have you ever met a whitelighter named Cassia?"

Piper frowned at the question.

Next to her Leo sat up a little straighter and considered this. There was silence as Leo tried to come up with and an answer and Piper tried to figure out why that name was familiar.

"She's not another Natalie is she?" Piper asked, breaking the silence.

"Natalie?" Leo looked at his wife surprised. "I told you that Natalie was just a co-worker."

"Whose sentences you finished," Piper reminded him.

"We worked together and Natalie has been gone a very long time," Leo looked at her confused. "Why would you bring her up now?"

"Because this Cassia is a female whitelighter who the boys think you have reason to know," Piper announced.

"Actually we don't . . . do we?" Wyatt looked at his little brother.

Chris shrugged. "I didn't get the idea that she knew Dad all that well. I'm not even sure she ever met him. I just got the idea that she thought he was done an injustice and she wanted to correct that." He shrugged. "Considering her own situation, she very well could be in the same situation soon."

Leo frowned. "She's in danger of getting her wings clipped?"

"Or having her soul recycled," Chris confirmed. "This has nothing to do with that, though."

"Maybe you should . . ."

"Oh!" Leo exclaimed, interrupting Wyatt.

Everyone looked at him surprised.

"Is something the matter, Dad?" Wyatt asked.

Leo shook his head. "No, I just remembered who Cassia is."

"Then, you do know her?" Piper asked, sounding disappointed.

Leo shook his head. "Not really. I only met her the once, shortly after she died. She's fairly young. I don't think it's even been forty years since she became a whitelighter."

"Probably not," Chris agreed. He held out the envelope. "She wanted me to give this to you. She said you'd need it soon."

Leo took the envelope from him. "I can't imagine what she'd want to give me. We did only meet that one time and it was a very long time ago."

"I don't think it had so much do with you as it did with something you planned to do," Chris admitted, "but I think you should take it."

Leo opened it up and pulled out the diploma. He frowned and looked it over. Without saying a word, he handed it to Piper and pulled out another paper. This one was a birth certificate almost identical to the one Piper had altered years before, except this one was whiteout free. Leo handed this to Piper and reached in his hand, again. This time he pulled out a second envelope. His name was written on the front.

While his wife looked over the documents he had handed her Leo pulled out a letter from within the envelope. Silently he read it.

_Leo,_

I kind of doubt that you remember me. Usually an interrogator has less memory of the interrogation than the person they interrogate. And considering you were a rather kind interrogator there is no blood or gore to make it very memorable to you. My name is Cassia Marie Reynolds. I graduated high school with your wife's older sister, Prue and Prue's husband, Andy, among other people. I was, by far, one of the youngest people in the class. As we moved directly after graduation most people I attended school with don't really know what happened to me.

You met me almost directly after my death in an almost comical car accident. I wouldn't go using that term for most people, but personally I feel the whole accident was rather bizarre. And the road where it happened was rather strange, too, but I think that's just because of how the mountain was shaped.

As I am sure that you don't want to hear how it is that I died driving a car at under fifteen miles per hour, I will attempt to get to the point. Your wife does not know this, and until I am given leave to tell her, cannot know this, but I worked at The Manor for almost twenty years. During that time I became integrated into the lives of many of my co-workers as well as my employer, your wife that is. I have seen how well you handle running P3 and how much you care for your students, both the magical ones at magic school and the nonmagical ones in various other settings. I have seen the results of your lessons with your nephew, Hank, and know how much that means to him.

I also have seen that despite all that, this is not your calling. You, like all whitelighters, past, present, future, were called to help people and you are doing that, but this isn't the way you were called to help them. It has come to my attention that you wish to go back to medical school. We both know that won't be easy. As far as I know, you have studied medicine since 1942, eighty-five years ago. It's changed a bit since then. While I'm not in contact with her, my oldest sister, Ash, is the chief physician at a hospital in Sacramento, so I have a little bit of knowledge about that.

Then, there's the age issue. Forgetting your actual age of one-hundred-and-three and your physical age of somewhere around forty, the age you portend to be is almost fifty-three. No one really gets into medical school at fifty-three. It's not as if you can assure them that you will even live through all those years of college and internship. To be fair though, no one can actually assure them that, and your real age aside, you're actually not that old, especially your physical age.

Considering you plan to attend the local college for at least the premed, I know at least three people there, nonmagical so don't worry about my influencing them with knowledge of who you are, who would love to have you there. One of them, I admit, will be rather influenced by whom he believes you are. He would never have been born if it had not been for "your grandfather". His own grandfather would have died the same day you did had you not been there. I believe you met several years ago at the reunion.

With those influences in place, all you need is proper identification. I know that Piper made some alterations to your birth certificate and you have used it to get various documents made, such as a passport. I decided to get you a whole new set of documents, some are more or less duplicates of stuff you already had . . . but now your birth certificate is registered with the government and can actually be verified if someone bothers to check. I wasn't sure if you had a driver's license, but I couldn't find one, so I got one made for you . . . I hope you don't mind. I took the test for you.

Leo reread the last sentence and chuckled. He didn't know why she was so determined to do this, but it amused him that she had gone to the trouble of taking a driving test for him. He reached into the envelope and pulled out the driver's license. Like the birth certificate, it listed his birth date as May 6, 1974. At that point it had been fifty years since his birth and thirty-two since his death. Since it was also the date he had been using since he married Piper, he figured it worked well enough.

He looked back at the letter and continued reading.

_I know the circumstances, as much as most anyone who bothers to pay attention Up There, behind how you ended up clipping your wings. I cannot imagine being given the choice between my family and my charges. It's been almost thirty-nine years since I've played any part in the lives of my family . . . well, other than that one time, but I actually didn't realize he was my nephew, so I think I can be forgiven that. I think it must have been very hard, but at the same time I guess you kind of eased into that situation and things had changed in ways I don't think anyone could have predicted._

I want you to have the chance to become the doctor you were meant to be and I think when it became clear that you were not going to be a whitelighter again, certainly not soon, perhaps never again, they should have done something to ease things for you and so I told them.

Among the items here are various phone numbers to "verify" the information held within them. These are all valid numbers of people who either know you or at the very least, know of you. Many of them are former charges of yours, mostly magical, but there are a few of them who are nonmagical, future whitelighters who know about magic or people who have come in contact with you through your wife's work as a Charmed One. If you ever feel your world is rather small, feel free to pull out these numbers and give someone a call. All of them know enough about you that you don't have to pretend anything.

There is another matter of which I wish to apprise you. It is more on the track of who am and little to do with you. This is another thing I need to you refrain from mentioning to your family for the time being. As things stand right now, I rather doubt I will be able to do much about it right now. If things do not change soon, though, I may have to give in. Until about two months ago I was in the body of a young woman whose face you actually would recognize. It was as her that I worked for your wife at The Manor and it was as her that I did my best to watch my charges despite a lack of my whitelighter powers.

That was enough while magic was gone, but as the time grew closer when it would be returning, I knew my powers would be needed. Things happened that I had to deal with and by the time they were dealt with your family had encountered the demon responsible and not only fix the problems he had given you, but put the five of us back in our own bodies. Thank you for that. That has brought with it another set of problems, but I will find a way to deal with them in time.

In the mean time I have another whitelighter helping me with my charges. As he does not want to be named, I'll leave his name out of this. Unfortunately in the turmoil of everything getting put back and the problem that has caused me getting used to having my powers again and dealing with . . . issues, not everything has gone as it should. One of my charges was in mortal danger after a demon attack and nearly died. I was in a situation where I could not leave without exposing magic and by the time I managed to get a message to someone, all he could do was stand by and watch for the most part. He said he was able to get close enough to my charge once and was only able to heal my charge for about a second before he had to stop because of the potential for magical exposure.

I have a feeling you wouldn't have cared much at that moment in time about magical exposure, because the charge in question was your son, Wyatt. And that is what you must not tell your wife or family. I have heard enough to be weary of how I tell them that I am their whitelighter. No, I am not your wife's whitelighter, but she does have one. Assuming I get out of here and everything works out all right, I will tell them myself as soon as possible. I was assigned to be Wyatt whitelighter when he was born. Since he was your son, some Up There felt you could not be objective. However, I was also told for the most part not to interfere, unless absolutely necessary, until or unless he, and any other of his generation, began to fight evil and protect the innocent. There were occations when that did happen, but for the most part I am convinced that those who assigned me this task were blinded idiots . . . perhaps you shouldn't mention that part to anyone. I rather like being a whitelighter and helping my charges. I'm just a little mad at them right now, because they refuse to help me in this situation. Even my boss, for I cannot call him my mentor . . . he's got less experience than I do with these things . . . has been ignoring me in this and usually I can count on him to help me out.

At best you have a whole lot to think about and a great deal more tools to use in order to get into medical school when the time comes. At worst, I have bored you out of your mind and you are going to hunt me down for an apology. If that is the case, sorry . . . well, not really, but I can make a good show of it.

Best of luck,

Cassia

Leo folded the letter back up and put it into the envelope. He looked up and saw that three sets of eyes were on him.

"Are you going to share?" Piper wanted to know.

Leo shook his head. "Not for now. Later I will tell you about the letter, but not yet." He looked at his sons. "Thank you for this. She's right, I will need it. It was good of her to do this and quite a surprise."

Piper opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it. She would talk to him later. She stood up and walked over to Wyatt. She surprised him by pulling him into a hug. "I'm glad you're all right."

Wyatt hugged her back. "Thanks, Mom. Chris said you made the potion I needed."

"I made it," she agreed, "but Chris and that odd witch girl got the ingredients we needed. I don't know when I might have found what I needed, let alone actually located the ingredients if it hadn't been for her. Do you two need something to eat?"

The two brothers looked at each other and shook their heads. "Thanks, but we're good," Wyatt assured her. "I think right now, bed sounds good. I was going to watch some TV, but it's been a really long day."

"Be careful, boys," Piper cautioned them.

"Don't worry, Mom," Chris suggested.

Wyatt chuckled. "As if that ever works. Love you, Mom, Dad," he told his parents before he orbed out.

Chris hugged both of his parents before he said he own good-byes and orbed back to the apartment. It had been a very long day and he thought he might want to go to bed, too.

* * *

Good news for Leo. What do you think of what Cassia revealed in her letter?

In the next chapter (of which there are only two more, plus a "deleted scene" which I will be posting with the last chapter) Emily returns home from work and finds her brothers both still at home. I had fun with this chapter even if I'm not so sure Emily or her brothers did . . . well, not her brothers anyway.


	29. Big Brothers Bite

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - I agree. Family scenes were nothing much happens are fun. As to family whitelighters: The way I figured it, the elders didn't much get along with the Charmed Ones. They needed their help, but the trust, both ways, wasn't there for the most part, not by the end of the series. I will write a a summary at the end of this chapter if you'd like to learn more about that.

Stacey - Good job at figuring that out then. I was trying to give enough hints that anyone trying to figure it out could, but without stating it outright. I will go into Cassia as a whitelighter at the bottom of this chapter, but yes, she is also Chris' whitelighter. It is a lot of fun playing with sibling banter, be it Wyatt and Chris, Seth and Peter, Emily and her brothers as seen in this next chapter, Hank and his sisters, Phoebe's girls, and certainly any of the Charmed Ones interacting with each other.

The last think Emily needs after work is the be ambushed by her brothers. However, he brothers have just spent dinner with their parents (who want to know why neither of their sons is dating anyone at their ages) and they feel up to ambushing.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Nine – Big Brothers Bite

Emily shut the front door behind her and hung her purse on the coat rack that hung by the door. Dad had said her brothers had decided to stay after dinner and if he didn't know better he'd think they planned to ambush her. Even though she was pretty sure they actually did plan to ambush her, she hadn't said so on the drive home. It was bad enough that her brothers knew about strange things going on around Chris and his brother. She didn't need her parents questioning it, too.

She tipped toed past the family room where she saw the tops of her brothers' heads as they watched TV. Dad had said Mom had gone to bed early . . . which meant her brothers had probably won whatever argument had gotten them invited over for dinner in the first place. Mom didn't like to lose.

"Freeze," Nate's voice called out just when Emily thought she was home free. "Get in here, Emily Anne. We need to talk."

_Never a good sign_, she decided. "Can it wait? I just got home from work. I smell like food."

"Smelling like food's not actually that bad of a thing," Matt commented. "Remember when I used to come home smelling like cigars?"

Emily grinned. "Mom and Dad were convinced that you were smoking and you wouldn't tell them what was really going on, because you were trying to surprise them."

"Who'd have thought trying to earn enough money to send them to Fiji for their anniversary would get me grounded," he retorted.

"Well, you could have told them _what_ you were doing," she pointed out. "They wouldn't have known why."

"Yeah, but that was before they realized Matt wasn't just playing around with magic," Nate reminded her. "They still thought the magic tricks he did were cute, but a total waste of time."

"To be fair, he hadn't actually made any money before that point," she shot back. "Putting on shows for the neighborhood kids isn't going to cover the costs of supplies no matter how good you are."

"I remember how furious they were when Matt quit his job as a bag boy at the supermarket," Nate chuckled. His face fell as he realized what she was doing. "This isn't about Matt though. Get in here, Em."

She sighed. Behind her, she heard the door close, indicating their dad had entered the house. She entered the room and stopped about a foot inside.

"Close the doors behind you," Nate directed her.

Emily sighed. She pushed shut the doors and headed over to the middle of the room. She plopped down onto an empty arm chair and looked over at her two older brothers. "Okay, want to tell me what's going on?"

"I think that's our line," Nate commented. "Matt may not have an elegant way of putting it and he's way off base about Wyatt Halliwell's sanity, but despite his assurances, I'm not sure that you are safe around him. Today was one of the most frightening, if not the most frightening, experiences of my life. I know it could have been worse and I know that Wyatt Halliwell knew what was going on out there."

"Haven't you beaten this topic to death?" Emily protested as she looked at her brothers.

"You're our little sister," Nate reminded her. "There's no such thing."

"Nate's more or less convinced me of Wyatt Halliwell's sanity," Matt admitted, "but he's still got me worried."

"What makes you think what happened today has anything to do with Wyatt?"

"I got the idea that this was nothing new to him," Nate informed her.

"So he has a cool head under pressure," Emily retorted. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"It also implies that he's attracted to this sort of thing," he returned.

"Well, it's not like I'm dating the guy," she shrugged. "I just work with his brother." She glared at Matt.

"I have retracted my objection to your job," he announced. "Right now I want to know what your relationship is with the Halliwell brothers."

Emily's glare deepened at she said in short clipped words, "I. Work. With. Chris. How is that a hard concept to grasp?"

"Because your first instinct was to trust them," Nate reminded her. "You've only known them for two months and Wyatt claims he barely knows you."

"He does," she agreed. "Chris I do know. He's a nice guy and, yes, I trust him."

"With your life?" Matt asked, pointedly.

"If necessary," she agreed without hesitation.

"Well, I don't want it to be necessary," Matt protested.

"I don't either," she informed him, "but today I had to trust Wyatt with Nate's life and Wyatt came through."

"Do you know what actually happened today?" Nate wanted to know.

She shook her head. "No, I can't say that I do. I know enough to know that I know that I know you had the best possible people handling it. I won't deny that I was worried, but I knew if anyone could come through, they could. If you don't trust them, trust me."

There was silence from both of her brothers.

She sighed. Turning to Nate she asked, "Nate, would you say that you are an expert at what you do?"

He shook his head. "No, not really."

That hadn't exactly been the answer she had been looking for. "Well, then would you say that you are very good at what you do?"

"I'd admit that," he agreed.

"So I should trust you with my finances?" she pressed.

He chuckled. "Last I checked, you _did_ trust me with your finances." Those finances didn't amount to much since she was two months into her first paying job.

"Exactly," she grinned. Turning to her other brother she asked, "And, Matt, would you say that you're an expert in your field."

"There's always room to grow," he admitted, "but I'd say I'm high up there."

"And you'd say that I should trust you . . . with my life . . . when I assist you at shows?"

"You're my sister," he reminded her, sounding a little offended. "I wouldn't let you come to harm.

"But I should trust your ability?" she pressed.

"Of course," he told her. He sounded even more affronted as he added, "I know what I'm doing."

"And so does Wyatt," she informed them both. They didn't need to know what it was Wyatt knew how to do to understand that he was good at it. "You'd agree with that. Right, Nate?"

"Yes," Nate nodded. "I don't know if I want to know what was going on out there, though."

"You probably don't," Emily admitted.

"But yes, he did know what he was doing," Nate continued, "or he sure gave a good show of it."

"He knew," she assured both of them. Giving them both a pleading look she asked, "Trust me?"

Matt sighed and didn't say a word. He didn't like the direction this conversation had taken.

"Yes," Nate agreed reluctantly. He didn't like it much, but he was convinced that it was better to have her around an expert than a rooky and Wyatt clearly seemed like the former.

Having Nate's word, Emily directed all her attention and her older brother. "Matt?"

Matt nodded silently.

"Good," she smiled at them. She knew they still weren't quite ready to admit their little sister had grown up, but they were on their way and she definitely liked the idea of being allowed to forge her own path in a direction very different than that either of her brothers had taken.

* * *

Emily's day is done. In the last chapter of this story Wyatt and Chris head back to their apartment and get ready for bed. Both are glad the days over, but if they only knew they wouldn't be so quick to feel relief.

I will also be including a bonus chapter involving a series of scenes I wrote about events that happened in an earlier episode, but connects more directly to this one. Since it also doesn't have much to do with this story, it's just added for fun.

Finally, I will be posting the prologue of the next episode. So once I get reviews for this chapter you have a lot to look forward to. Enjoy.

* * *

I said I would include info about Cassia's history as a whitelighter for the Halliwells. First, she was never whitelighter to the Charmed Ones.

In my mind, and thus for my series Sam was the original whitelighter for the Charmed Ones (just as he was the whitelighter for Patty). This lasted until Sam left. This would have been prior to Patty's death, possibly prior to Paige's birth. We know that Sam was there when Paige was born and we know he was a whitelighter until he clipped his wings when Patty died. However, we were also given the impression that there was an extended period of time where Patty and Sam did not see each other prior to her death during which they wrote letters to each other. We do not know how long this lasted, but some people have speculated that somethings in those letters might be referencing in a vague way, Patty's pregnancy. If they are, most likely it was lucking out, because others have pointed out it is highly unlikely anyone was thinking of the possibility of a Paige at the point of that episode.

At some point Leo became whitelighter to the Charmed Ones and we are given to believe this was early on. I don't recall where, but at one point he said he had been watching over then their whole lives. We do know that he was already on the job when Grams died, because I can see no other reason he would have been around then. He may have become the girls whitelighter right after Sam stopped being around or it's possible that until he clipped his wings, Sam was officially still their whitelighter, so he might have become their whitelighter when Sam clipped his wings. I wrote a story about the latter option, but at present that story is not "cannon" for my series especially since I have only posted that story on a member only site called "Alternate Charmed". There was a series of interuptions in Leo's time as their whitelighter until "Morality Bites" (I think) and even then Leo continued to be the whitelighter for the Charmed Ones only until his wings were clipped after "Awakened". As there is no evidence that the Charmed Ones had a whitelighter between "Awakened" and "Murphey's Luck" chances are they either didn't have a whitelighter during this time period, because the elders knew he would learn his lesson in time, or any whitelighter they might have had did not show their face. Leo continued to be their whitelighter until he became an elder in "Oh My Goddess".

At this point Chris became the whitelighter for the Charmed Ones. This lasted until his death in "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World", thought there were obvious disruptions during the times when Leo reasigned him. There was no evidence that any other whitelighter was assigned during these time periods, but then then they did have a resident elder, so I doubt they needed one.

After Chris' death there was no evidence that a new whitelighter was assigned. Of course, they again had a resident elder, even more than before because Leo was actually living with them. And even after he was no longer a whitelighter the elders tended to show up, but the elders didn't tend to always like dealing with the Charmed Ones.

For the purposes of my series, at some point after Chris death, most likely close to the end of the series . . . I'm thinking some point after November 6, 2005. Feel free to research the date and see if you can figure out what I am up to there . . . Anyway, at some point the elders assigned a whitelighter to the Charmed Ones, but didn't tell them. This whitelighter is someone who they see which clearly kicks JD out of the running (Mr. Hides-At-The Sight-of-a-Halliwell). This whitelighter is also only assigned to Piper, Phoebe, and Paige. Because of the lack of magical problems (for the most part) this whitelighter has not revealed that they are whitelighter to the Charmed Ones.

Okay, so that covers that part.

Now, Cassia. She graduated high school with Prue, Andy, and the rest of their class. She was in a car accident shortly before both starting college and her eighteenth birthday. She died. After becoming a whitelighter Leo had a talk with her, since she knew something of his charges. From that time until some as yet to be figured out point in 2002, she had absolutely no contact with the Charmed Ones, or Leo. She was under the mentoring of an elder named Ramus when she was first a whitelighter and still answered to him at this point. She knew that the time was coming soon when Ramus would be retiring.

In 2002 the elders decided that the unborn child of a Charmed One was going to need absolutely all the help he could get if there was going to be any chance he was going to be good. They had learned with Natalie that the Charmed Ones did not respond the way they wanted to most whitelighters, so they decided to break one of their rules and assign someone who knew them. She was to find a way to integrate herself into their lives and to try and not interfere unless they absolutely needed it. Her focus was to be on the boy. And when two months later, the Seer stole that boy and everything went down leading to her vanquish from within, the elders breathed a collective breath of relief that they weren't going to have to deal with a baby who was the source possessed child of a Charmed One. And then Piper was pregnant, whether she was when Phoebe was or not is in question, but the elders decided to go ahead with this plan. They figured Leo probably couldn't be objective with his own son, so Cassia was assigned to be his whitelighter.

In late 2002 the time came for Ramus to retire and in the process, he was killed by a demon. His replacement was just a kid. Cassia, like most of whitelighters who Ramus had mentored, was not too happy with this new developement. Cassia tried to do her job and to more or less stay in the background. When Leo became an elder and Chris became the Charmed Ones' new whitelighter, the elders were not prepared to let the Charmed Ones know about Cassia (and they kept this from Leo, too), so Wyatt ended up having two whitelighters, though Cassia was still in the background. When Chris was born, Cassia was assigned to be his whitelighter to. At some point between November 6, 2005 and March 2006 Cassia, JD, and three others were switched about.

Despite the elders wishes otherwise, when Cassia found herself in Jen Kingsley's body with no powers, she chose not let the elders temporarily make Jen a whitelighter. JD's situation was different since he ended up with Cassia's powers. Because the powers had been switched about and landed in him by the demon, it wasn't require to make Ron a whitelighter for him to use whitelighter powers. He didn't have to make the choice she did. Even though she chose to do things this way, she still wanted to be a whitelighter, so she found a way to do that her own way. Her charges were mostly local so between her and JD they tried to find ways to take care of those who weren't local and to get her in contact with those who where. And as Jen, she was able approach people without being in glamour that she might not have otherwise.

As Jen Cassia applied to work at The Manor when Piper opened it. She was one of the first people Piper hired and as of December 2026 one of only two original employees still working for Piper (Drinka was the other). December 2026 was when she quit in order to deal with Ron's sucidal tendencies.

Because of magic stopping so soon after this happened she felt safer with her decision, but when it came back she would have gone ahead and agreed to it had she not been dealing with Ron and then (thanks to the events of "The Demon of Confusion") gotten both her body and her powers back. Besides the various Halliwell's in her charge, she also had various future whitelighters who she got jobs at different points in time at The Manor.

When she ended up with both CT and Brianna as charges, she decided to take on their friends, too. It was not well thought of by many Up There that she wanted two half darklighters and a demon as charges, but she convinced them. I'd have to check, but I think she might have implied that it was actually Kevin's idea.

And then, of course comes the five from another reality. Andy, having given up his wings, no longer is magical, but Prue, Pat, Vicki, and Melinda are most certainly magical and most certainly going to be in the line of magical fire. There was talk between the two Halliwell family whitelighters, but in the end Cassia ended up with Melinda as a charge and the other three went to a new whitelighter. You see Mikelle claimed she had a claim to the priviledge what with being the Wells/Trudeau family whitelighter. So Andy and his brother, Ben, both married witches and thus between them they have four children who can claim the name "Trudeau Witches". This is important, but I'll leave you to see if you can figure out why. It's in there, more than once. And while Mikelle assures people she'd know if Sarah had married a witch, there is nothing normal about Sarah's nonmagical husband. But that's another story.


	30. Time For Rest

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Soraya - There is an amazing amount of backstory behind most everything and everyone in my stories. The longer in advance I knew about the character, the more time I have to prepare a backstory and let it sit and take root in my imagination. For example. In "A Friend in Need" there are various vague, and some not so vague, references to someone. Kali, who has always only had her mother casts a spell using Gypsy magic, but instead of calling on the Nicolae family line, she calls on the Dudarova family line. In a flashback of this story you learn that she is probably the only person alive who tries to cast Danielle in a good light, because she thinks children should have both of their parents, mostly due to her complete lack of a father. There is referencing to the fact that a demon deprived her of a father and in "Imaginary Fiends (and Real Friends)" you meet that demon. Another example is a character you met in this story (whose name I will not be revealing). This character will go through the process of learning to trust magic and then a tragedy will set this character at odds with the Halliwells. How about someone you haven't met yet. Okay, again, better than mention names. This character has been mentioned, but the character doing the mentioning has no idea about the story behind this person. This character is fully nonmagical, but has some pretty high born bloodlines so far as the underworld is concerned. This character is the black sheep of his/her family and generally avoids magical encounters, trying to shelter the family he/she has gained over the years. This character also holds a very important key to a mystery that will need to be solved, but he/she doesn't currently realize there is any mystery to be solved. Back to your review. I'm so glad that you LOVE it. Even more so that you love it so much you felt the need to put that in all caps. :D Matt and Nate are absolutely fun as Emily's older brothers. They are so very different from each other, but when it comes to their little sister, they are in more or less complete agreement. And unlike some of the siblings in this series they don't have the advantage of knowing what they are up against. Emily does, but she's promised not to enlighten her brothers and she is deturmined to keep that word. Of course if her brothers keep acting like this, she might have a hard time of it. And you will most certainly see more of them. I do not at present know the next time either of them will be in an episode (seeing as the next episode I _know_ they are in is far enough ahead that they have to be in episodes between now and then), but they certainly will be back.

Stacey - First *Big Grin* So glad you love it. I always have so much fun with siblings, especially when they don't agree with each other. Emily has been introduced to a world so very different then she ever imagined and over the weeks since then, she has been trying to figure out how to take that knowledge. She has learned to trust them. They still aren't sure they should have trusted her (ie Chris), but she's not going to let that bother her. She figured the best way to get to her brothers was to use the illustrations of their own professions. Matt the magician and Nate the accountant have very different job descriptions but both are very good at what they do. Matt has been practicing his "craft" since he was about eight years old (I think, don't quote me on that age). He is now very well known in his field as the Mysterious Magician. Nate has always loved numbers and while he is still a low level accountant in the firm he works for, he is one of the youngest employees of that company and being trusted to find the problem at the museum is no small matter. Emily figured by terming it that way, they would get it whether they liked it or not. She's trying to grow up and become her own person and her brothers aren't too thrilled about that. Also glad you enjoyed the information about Cassia. It was fun trying to get the info in my head about her onto "paper" for you to read. As informative as you found it, I left out several bits of information that will come to light in later episodes. All right, now to get the rest of this stuff ready to post.

*Wonders randomly if that comment would have gotten more comment if I had also mentioned that it had something to do with Phoebe . . . guess we'll never know*

For those of you who like imagining the brothers bare chested, enjoy. There are clues in this chapter about things to come. See if you can figure out what they might be.

* * *

Chapter Thirty – Time For Rest

"Our landlord was here," Chris commented as he entered the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"Huh?" Wyatt looked at him confused, toothpaste foam dripping out of his mouth.

"Apparently, our pipes are leaking down into the apartment below us," Chris explained. "He was acting a little strange though. Ever noticed that?"

"Other than the fact that I've never heard him call you 'Chris', not really," Wyatt admitted. "Give him a break. He's got to be one hundred. I can't believe he's still involved in these apartments."

"I don't think he's quite that old," Chris commented, "but I thought it was worth mentioning about the pipes. He'll be in here with a plumber, probably sometime tomorrow. Be careful not to leave anything out about magic. We don't want to expose magic."

"I'm not the technophobe," Wyatt retorted, though the tooth paste dripping down his cheeks took any bite he might have intended out of his words.

"I'm not a technophobe," Chris protested as he looked over at his brother. Seeing the toothpaste, he bit his inner lip to stop himself from laughing. When he had controlled the impulse he continued. "I just prefer to have a hard copy in front of me over . . ."

"Having it all stored in one place where it's unlikely to get lost," Wyatt finished, giving his brother an amused look.

Chris gave him an annoyed look back. Trying to change the subject he asked, "What do you think was in the letter Dad read?"

Wyatt shrugged, not really all that interested. "If we needed to know, Dad would have told us."

"Yeah, I guess," Chris replied reluctantly. He really did want to know what was in there.

Silence followed as both brothers brushed their teeth.

Breaking the silence, Chris asked, "Think the demons can leave us alone for a few days?"

"What am I? Aunt Phoebe?" Wyatt gave his little brother a look. He pushed closed the medicine cabinet where he kept his toothbrush and toothpaste. "I can't tell the future."

"Well, if there aren't any demons tomorrow, what are you doing?" Chris wanted to know.

"Sleeping until noon," Wyatt retorted. "I'm exhausted. Now go away."

"Anyone ever tell you that you're rude?" Chris asked before he poured some water in his mouth to rinse out the tooth paste.

"You most likely," Wyatt returned. He stripped off his shirt as he left the bath room and headed for his room. Without looking he tossed it in the general direction of the laundry hamper, missing by several feet.

Chris rolled his eyes as he left his toothbrush out and headed after his brother. He didn't answer for several seconds. When he did talk, his voice was serious. "Any residual effects from the curse?"

"Other than the knowledge that instead of protecting Olivia I almost killed her," Wyatt informed him, a haunted look in his eyes. He sank down onto his bed and bowed down his head with a sad sigh. "I'm supposed to protect her, protect all of them."

"You do," Chris argued. "You did. You didn't infect any of them. When each of them was in danger of death, you saved them. And you got Nathan at least to hold on with his own power. I'm not saying you had an easy day. I'm not even denying the fact that in the end you snapped, but you know what, if you hadn't been there, they'd all be dead, probably Emily's brother and that other co-worker of yours, too."

Wyatt didn't answer at first, but he did look up. With an odd look on his face he said, "It occurs to me that you are a very contradictory person, little brother. Can't you even make up your mind about whether you think I'm a failure or some big hero?"

Chris chuckled as he plopped down on the bed next to Wyatt. "That one's easy. You're neither."

"Come again?" Wyatt looked at him confused.

"You're my big brother," Chris announced. "That means you are held on the highest pedestal that I can find and I naturally expect you to never do as good at anything as I do, because I am the younger brother."

"Is that supposed to make sense?" Wyatt asked, a smile tugging at his lip.

Chris shook his head. "Not really. It's supposed to make you smile."

Wyatt snorted.

Chris gave him a big grin. "I see its working."

"You are so weird," Wyatt commented as he pulled Chris into a headlock and messed up Chris hair.

Chris wiggled out and attempted to catch Wyatt in a headlock.

Unfortunately for him, Wyatt was ready and jumped out of the way. "Uh uh."

"You started it," Chris reminded him.

"You really up for a wrestling match?" Wyatt asked.

Chris scowled. "Good night, Wyatt. Tomorrow, you're mine."

"Not until after noon," his brother reminded him.

Chris stuck out his tongue and left the room.

Wyatt smiled as he closed the door after his brother. He quickly finished getting ready for bed and slipped beneath the covers, very glad that the day was done. As he drifted off to sleep he tried not to think of curses, demons, or anything magical. He just wanted a deep uninterrupted sleep.

He thought he was tired now, but he didn't really know what tired was. If he only knew what was coming, he wouldn't have been so quick to say that. What was about to happen was going to make this day seem like a vacation.

THE END

* * *

For the record, Wyatt did get to sleep in as late as he wanted to as the troubles of the next episode don't start for a good half a week.

Okay, so for anyone wanting to read an extra little chapter . . . well, not so little. It's most assuredly longer than some of the chapters I write . . . continue on to the next "chapter". I'd love to know what you think. If gives you more info into various events of this chapter. In addition there are some deleted and altered scenes. The most notable is probably my original version of the flashback Andrew described to Wyatt about how he got his name. The extra chapter is "canon". The deleted and alternate scenes are not.

For those of you wanting to skip that and just find out what on earth that last paragraph means, continue on to 1637 and a story 390 years in the making (so to speak). The next episode is called "Something In the Water".


	31. Extra Chapter and Alternate Scenes

This series of scenes actually takes place during "The Demon of Confusion". Considering prior to this story you have not met any of the people in it other than Kevin (and JD, but that was in Charmed), it wouldn't make sense to post it there. As I did with Piper, Leo, Wyatt, and Chris, here is a chart to help you tell who is who.

Soul...Body...Power  
Cassia Reynolds...Jen (15 – 36)...Alex (none)  
Jennifer "Jen" Kingsley (Owens)...Alex (7 – 28)...JD (whitelighter – disabled)  
Alexis "Alex, Jelly" Porter (Owens)...JD (22 – 22)...Ron (none)  
Jonathan David "JD" Williams...Ron (35 – 56)...Cassia (whitelighter)  
Ronald "Ron" Ryans...Cassia (17 – 17)...Jen (none)

So basically JD, who is in Ron's body, is the only one with powers. And since one of those is glamouring, he did that a lot. This situtation with Jen, Alex, and Josh is complicated . . . But for record's sake, Alex has met Jen, Ron, and Cassia, but she mostly deals with JD. And Jen's met Ron, JD, and (obviously) Alex, but she mostly deals with Cassia. Ron avoids all of them. Alex has never met Josh. Keep in mind you are dealing with people who after twenty years have long had cause to wonder if they would ever return to their own bodies.

Oh, and technically the nickname "Jelly" is exclusively Jen's, but since she used it only while looking like Alex, it is listed this way.

The following scenes are what happens when Alex, Jen, Cassia, JD, and Ron figure out that they are in their own bodies once more. In addition there are two elders (Kevin and another who will eventually be revealed, but this is the elder that rescued Hank, and yes, he's up to something) and Josh, _Jen_'s husband.

Oh, and when it comes to Kevin, he tends to switch between his no effort age (the age he was when he became an elder, thirteen or so), his comfort age (late teens, early twenties), and his authoritative age (also known as his actual age, which is late thirties). In this batch of scenes he uses his comfort age, because that's what he usually uses around the whitelighters under him . . . unless they are in trouble.

Anyway, enjoy.

* * *

"The Demon of Confusion" – After The Souls are Released (Cassia, JD, Jen, Alex, and Ron's Story)

Alex wasn't sure what it was that actually woke her. She had been shooting pool with Denny and Jess. Mikayla had been draping herself all over Jess, something that never failed to make Alex want to roll her eyes. However, when it came to pool, Alex took every advantage she could. For almost seventeen years she had been perfecting her game of pool. As far as Jess and Mikayla were concerned, Alex was some newbie that Denny found playing pool against a pool sharp, and playing badly.

The truth of the matter was that Denny had found her two years early beating the pants off her mentor, JD. Denny had been highly impressed and decided to take her under his wing. Denny though she was some college age kid. He wasn't far off, she supposed. Seven or eight years wasn't all that bad. Of course given a few more years and she'd have to leave . . . again. It was getting rather tiresome. Being stuck in JD's eternally twenty-two-year-old body sucked for more reasons than just his gender.

When she had first found herself in the body of a young man more than three times her age, Alex had been seven. Things had gone downhill from there. She had tried to find some way to get into her family's life, but nothing had seemed to work. Then, JD pointed out that it probably was a good thing, since she wasn't going to be aging as long as she was in his body. At nine she had just glared at him. What did he know?

Unfortunately a lot as Alex learned over the two decades she had known him. She tried to concentrate on how she had ended up in bed. She remembered being in Denny's pool room and then a then she'd felt dizzy. That had to be it. She'd felt dizzy and then she was lying prostrate in a bed. There was no memory of falling, but she supposed she must have fainted or something.

She opened her eyes and found herself staring into the dark brown eyes of a complete stranger. Her own eyes widened as she scrambled away. "Get away from me," she squealed and then her eyes formed saucers as she realized her voice had completely changed.

The man the eyes belonged to looked at her worried. "What's wrong sweetheart?"

"Sweetheart?" She stared at him stunned as she pulled covers around herself on the side of the bed. The pieces began to click together in rapid succession and she gulped for breath. "Oh my word! You're Josh. You think . . ." she heaved in several deep breaths. "I'm me, again." She looked down at herself covered by sheets and blankets and took in several deep breaths. "Oh my word! Oh my word!" Her heart was pounding as she looked up at him. "Get out! Get out! Get out!"

Josh looked at her confused. "Jen?"

"I'm. Not. Jen!" she informed him in no uncertain terms.

Josh frowned as realization dawned on his face. With disbelief written all over his face, he whispered, "Are you Alex?"

The only response she gave him was a quick jerking nod of her head.

"Where's my wife?" Josh asked, looking around in concern. "Where's Jen?"

"I don't know," Alex informed him as she backed away. "Call Cassia's number, if I'm back in my body, maybe Jen is, too."

Josh nodded and pulled open a dresser. "Clothes are in there," he told her as he grabbed his cell phone off his dresser and headed out of the room, leaving Alex alone to dress and come to grips with what had happened.

Josh was only two steps out of the room when his cell rang.

* * *

Jen looked around uncertain. Only a moment before, she had been half awake in bed with Josh. Now she wasn't sure where she was. She was standing, but she hadn't been expecting to be standing so she'd almost tumbled over. Glancing around, she realized that the room actually was familiar.

Her eyes narrowed as she looked around. "This makes no sense," she mumbled as she looked down at the clothes she now wore. They were oddly out of her normal taste and the fact that she wore anything was peculiar. She hadn't been when she'd been in bed. The only thing that was familiar, besides the vague sense that she should know this room was the gentle bump of her belly where her baby lay.

With a sigh she looked around for a phone. She was halfway down the hall when she passed a mirror. It took a second or two for what she saw to sink in and cause her to freeze. She took two steps backward and looked into the mirror. Instead of the face she had grown accustomed to seeing, she saw her face, her real face. As she tried licked her suddenly dry lips, she glanced down at her belly. Sure enough, her baby was still there. Somehow she had been transferred back to her own body and miraculously her baby had come with her. Oddly enough the clothes seemed to still fit. Who was she to question magic?

Her mind followed that to an obvious conclusion, one she didn't like. If she was here, that meant Alex was where she had been . . . in bed . . . with Josh.

Jen ran down the hall and checked in the bedroom. There were no visible phones. She started pulling open drawers on the vanity and then she thought to check her pocket.

Finding the phone there, where it had been all along, she punched in the familiar number of Josh's cell.

"Jen?" Josh's voice asked a moment later as he answered.

"I'm me, again."

His sigh of relief was obvious even over the phone. "Are you okay, honey?"

"Yeah," she assured him. She didn't say anything more as blue white orbs filled the room and turned into a young man she didn't recognize in his late teens, early twenties. "I'll get back to you. Love you, sweetheart."

Her eyes widened as the young whitelighter jerked back as if shot. She saw pain in his eyes that was veiled so fast she almost convinced herself it was never there.

"Cassia, I tried calling, but you didn't answer," he informed Jen.

Jen gulped and didn't say a word. Who was this guy? He clearly knew what had happened to them, but she guessed that wasn't all that surprising. Cassia wouldn't have had need to keep it from the people she knew.

"Just because you don't have your powers," he continued, not yet noticing that this wasn't Cassia. "doesn't mean you are allowed to skip staff meetings."

Jen barely kept a full belly laugh from escaping her. Staff meetings? Was he serious?

"It's not as if you need to be able to orb to get to them," he added. "I have them at my apartment for good reason . . . grant you it's mostly so that Kari can provide the snacks almost no one has to eat, but does anyway to be polite."

Jen blinked. Who was Kari?

"That's not the point though," he rushed to assure her. Jen was beginning to wonder if there was one.

"I'm not Cassia," Jen interrupted before he could say anything else. It would likely be interesting to see what he was talking about, but she decided it would be better to tell him now.

He looked at her. He stood very still, breathing slowly. Several seconds passed before he said, "Oh. My apology, Mrs. Owens. I'm glad to see you are back to normal. I'd best be finding Cassia."

Without so much as an introduction, he disappeared again in blue and white orbs. Jen took a second to absorb what had just happened, but only a second and then she decided she had more important things to deal with right now . . . like letting her husband know that she was still on the line.

* * *

Cassia frowned as she looked away. One second she had been in the apartment where she had lived for the last seventeen years and the next she was in the middle of a large courtyard. It was almost as if she had orbed without orbing.

She stood still trying to take in her surroundings, but she couldn't concentrate. Pain radiated from her wrists. She looked down and her eyes widened. Blood streamed from straight cuts across them. She hadn't cut her wrists. And then she saw them slowly healing. A whitelighter couldn't heal themselves, not when it was something deadly to them like a darklighter's arrow. Someone who was part whitelighter couldn't heal themselves at all . . . everything was potentially deadly to them.

Humans, normal humans like she had been for over twenty years, couldn't heal anyone, not others and certainly not themselves. As the cuts on her wrists completely closed up and all that was left was the blood that had bled out of them, Cassia realized that everything had changed. She wasn't a normal human any more. She was a whitelighter, again. A smile spread on her lips as she took in the news. It felt good to be a whitelighter, again.

* * *

Kevin watched Cassia hidden from her and everyone else by a cloak of invisibility. He would have taken a step forward, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He looked over to see another elder standing next to him.

"You shouldn't," the other elder recommended.

"She's my responsibility," Kevin reminded him. "I need to talk to her."

"No, you need to avoid talking to her," the other elder argued. "She needs to be here for a while?"

"What? Are you nuts?" Kevin turned to stare at him. "Why would I leave her here?"

"You'll see," the other elder assured him. "In time you will see. She's got her powers back. This will give her the chance to get used to that before she gets back into her routine. Trust me."

"Trust you?" Kevin stared at him, annoyed. "One of my whitelighters is stuck in a mental institution and you're telling me to not even speak to her."

"She needs to find a way to get out without out help," the other elder informed him. "This isn't something I am deciding off the top of my head. Kevin, the council of elders has spoken on this. She defied them and clipping her wings . . . isn't exactly a punishment for her."

"So they are punishing her for not making a living woman into a whitelighter," Kevin formulated in disbelief. "You want me to just leave her here."

The other elder nodded. "It is the will of the council, but it's more than that. She needs to be here. I can't explain it, but she needs to be here."

Kevin shook his head. "I can't just do that. What if her charges need her and she can't get away from here. We can't leave them vulnerable."

"She can always get a message to you," the other elder reminded him. "And you can pass that message on to another whitelighter who can help them out. Most of her charges should be okay for a few months and . . ."

"A few months?" Kevin shook his head. "No. Not a chance."

"A few months is nothing compared to the two decades she spent in Jennifer Kingsley's body," the other elder reminded him. "She'll be fine and at least until she's out of there . . . so will her charges."

Kevin looked across the yard at where Cassia was and then back at the other elder.

"Go find JD," the other elder suggested. "I'll explain things to Cassia."

"JD?" Kevin asked surprised. "Why JD?"

"Because you need to find out where this asylums missing mental patient is," the other elder informed him, "and JD is your best bet at figuring out where to look. We need to figure out how to deal with him. I'm not concerned about the girls. They seem to have acclimated themselves to everything that has happened as best they can and I think they understand enough about magic and why it needs to be kept secret that they won't expose it. Now, go find JD."

* * *

JD heaved in a deep breath as he took in the scene in front of him. Moments before, he'd been in the park feeding pigeons and now, he found himself in a small pool room. He recognized one of the room's occupants as Alex's friend, Denny, but there was no reason he should have found himself here. He watched them as they each took their time setting up their shots. Denny made three shots before he missed.

"Your turn, JD," a young woman around twenty informed him.

_My turn?_ he thought as he looked frowning at the pool table. He hadn't played very much pool, not in this century anyway.

"JD?" the young woman waved a hand in front of his face. "Are you here?"

He frowned and looked around him. Something was very wrong here. Other than other whitelighters, what few elders he communicated with, and the two girls, Alex and Jen, little as he saw Jen, no one had called him JD in over two decades. Most of his charges didn't even know he existed let alone know he was their whitelighter.

"JD?" Denny walked over to him. "Is everything all right?"

JD gulped and shook his head. "Sorry, I need some air. Do you mind?"

The young woman shook her head. "No, that's okay. You do look kind of pale."

_That's because I'm dead,_ he thought to himself, even if it was entirely inaccurate. His being dead didn't affect his skin tone in the least. "Thanks," was all he said as he headed out of the room and up the stairs. Once he'd reached the top of the landing he tried to orb out. Try seemed to be the key word, because nothing happened.

"You okay, kid," Kevin's voice asked from behind him.

JD turned around and looked at him. In number of years actually spent living, or whatever one could call the whitelighter facsimile of living, they were close in age. Kevin still lost out to him by a few years. And if you counted the number of years since birth, JD beat him by over half a century. In fact the only way Kevin won was if you counted only the years Kevin had been an elder against the number of years JD had been a whitelighter. Even then, Kevin only barely won.

"How's it feel to have your own skin back?" Kevin asked with a grin.

"It would feel better if I also had my powers back," JD informed him.

Kevin shrugged. "Done. Anything else?"

"Nothing I can't handle," JD assured him.

"Good," Kevin informed him. "I need to locate Ronald Ryans."

JD glanced down the stairs. "How are you at pool?"

"What?"

"I can get Ron where he needs to go," JD informed him, "but I haven't the slightest clue how to deal with the three people down there. One of them is a friend of Alex's or at least Alex in my body. I suspect Alex would like to get back that friendship. The other two, I don't know. You can help by dealing with them. Find Alex and get her some introductions. Please."

Kevin nodded. "Be careful." With a smile on his face Kevin altered his appearance so that he went from looking like a nineteen-year-old version of himself to looking like JD. "Be careful," he repeated before he headed down the stairs.

JD grinned and orbed back to the park.

* * *

Ron looked around himself suspiciously. He had been wishing himself out of that asylum for so long he wasn't ready to believe this was real. They didn't understand his need to die. How could they? When he tried to explain that he was trapped in the body of a teenage girl who never aged, they just thought he was even more crazy. What sane man wanted to be stuck in the body of an eternal teenage girl? None of it had made sense. He'd tried making her look like a man, but nothing he did worked. He reached back an angry hand to deal with the try and pull out the offending long hair. He wasn't allowed around scissors and they hadn't let him cut that hair since he'd arrived. It was nearly to his shoulders . . . or her shoulders as it were.

Except when he reached back there was nothing there. He reached a little higher and his wrist scratched against a five o'clock shadow. Startled he moved his hand down a little lower and rubbed his hand against the stubble. He just sat there in wonderment for several minutes as he felt his face and his hair.

If this was real and permanent, then maybe he didn't have to die quite yet. It wasn't as if he really wanted to die. He just couldn't stand being that stupid girl any more.

"She's not stupid, you know," an unwelcome voice informed him from behind.

Ron turned around to glare at JD. He rose off the bench he'd found himself sitting on and stepped over it.

JD watched him. He opened his mouth to speak and that's when Ron leapt at him.

Ron started pummeling him. "You did this to me!" He yelled.

JD, aware that they were gaining an audience knew he couldn't us magic, which meant no orbing. He pushed up on Ron and tried to roll out from under him. It didn't work so well.

JD grunted as a fist met with his throat. It was good thing he didn't actually have to breathe. He managed to avoid the next blow and with a stronger shove he managed to move Ron enough to roll out of the way. "What's the big idea?"

"You can't just fix this and pretend nothing happened," Ron yelled at him as he threw another punch.

JD ducked it. "I'm not trying to. But at least it's a start. I understand . . ."

"You understand nothing," Ron informed him as he leapt at JD, again.

JD side stepped him and grabbed Ron by the arm. He pulled Ron's arm behind his back and wished he had put in some practice with self defense sometime in the last two decades. There hadn't been any good reason to though. He was a whitelighter. He'd chosen to accept the job along with everything that went with it when he had died. And whitelighters were pacifists.

JD didn't feel very much like a pacifist right now. The idea of just letting Ron beat him up was not appealing. Just because Ron couldn't kill him, didn't mean he couldn't hurt him and JD wasn't interested in pain.

Ron struggled to get out of JD's grip, but the more he struggled the more freaked out he got. He began seeing creatures with human features, but with horns and tails closing in on them. "Let me go!" he screamed as one creature sneered at him.

JD watched with growing concern as Ron lashed out at a little girl who was looking at him with curiosity.

"Get it away from me!" Ron screamed as he backed away from the crowd into JD.

"Get what away from you?" JD asked in a low voice.

Ron swung around, this time escaping JD's grip and his eyes widened. "You're one of them!" He glanced around him and started running into the first opening he could find in the crowd.

JD sighed and ran after him. Clearly Ron was not ready to be let loose on society. The problem was, he couldn't just let him loose on a mental hospital either. If this freak out was in any way magical, he couldn't risk it. And the elders would be furious if he brought Ron to them. And so he ran. He'd figure out what to do with Ron once he caught him. And as long as people could see him, he couldn't use magic to do it. JD was glad that he didn't have to glamour to look like himself anymore, but he certainly would have preferred the day gone better, because today was awful.

* * *

This next scene is an alternate version of the flashback from chapter twenty(?) where Andrew is telling Wyatt about how he got his name. I like this one better, but it didn't fit as well. I hope you enjoy it.

_The parking lot for the supermarket was filled with cars. Tanya Parker was pushing a cart towards her car filled with groceries. She was visibly pregnant. The sound of arguing caused her to look up. A man and a woman were yelling at each other. Tanya shook her head and sighed. She pushed her cart in next to her car and started searching her purse for her keys._

_"Hey, lady, out of my way!" a young man's voice called out to her seconds before he rammed into her and knocked her to the ground._

_Tanya slammed to the ground, landing on her stomach. Trying to ignore the pain she started to get up. The pain in her belly forced her back down and she hit her head against the edge of the car, knocking her out._

_When she came to a man was looking down at her worried. "Are you okay?"_

_It took a moment for Tanya to remember where she was and what happened. "My baby!" She sat up in a hurry and almost hit her head, again._

_"Do you need to see a doctor?" he asked, concerned. "I don't have a car or I'd drive you to the ER. There should be an ambulance coming though."_

_Tanya put her hand to her stomach and almost by magic she felt a kick under her hand. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness." She looked up at the stranger. "What happened?"_

_"I was going to ask you that," he admitted. "I came out of the store," he pointed at the store door some fifty feet away or so, "and I saw you fall. I sent my friend in to call 9-1-1 while I got over here as fast as I could. I didn't find any bleeding, but since you're pregnant, I didn't think I should take any chances. Are you in pain?"_

_"I was," she informed him, "but I don't feel anything anymore. And the baby is kicking."_

_"Well, you probably should wait to get up until the doctor's get here and look you over," he suggested. "Just in case." He offered her a smile and he stood._

_"Are you leaving?" Tanya asked confused._

_"I can't be here when they arrive," he informed her. "I'm sorry. Please don't mention my presence."_

_Another man ran and joined them. "Is she going to be all right?"_

_The first man looked at him. Tanya couldn't see his face when he asked, "What do you think?"_

_The sound of sirens caught all three of their attention before anything else. The second man waved him away, "You'd better get out of here, Andy. I see at least one police car."_

_There was a wistful look on "Andy's" face as he nodded. "Remember what I said. You have to be careful where you practice."_

_"You'll be back though," the second man protested._

_Andy shook his head. "I'm afraid not. They've decided that it's too much risk for me to be here. Keep an eye on Prue for me, will you?"_

_The second man nodded. "Get going before they see you."_

_Tanya watched confused as Andy nodded and hurried away from them. He disappeared around the corner just before the police car turned into the aisle._

_Over the next several minutes, the police asked her about what happened while the paramedics looked her over. The paramedics informed her that everything looked good, but they wanted her to return to the hospital with them for further tests since they didn't want to miss something._

_Tanya told them what she remembered; only leaving out the strange conversation between the two men. When she described her rescuer one detective looked at her startled. A sad look crossed the face of the man who had been identified to her as Detective Morris. She wondered about it, but didn't mention anything else about Andy, and Detective Morris didn't ask._

* * *

The second man, as in the official version, is Sean McInnis, Brianna's dad.

There rest of this is random bits and pieces of my original scenes. Most were used in some form or another, but not all.

* * *

"Because JD had my powers and someone else had my body," she informed him.

Chris' eyes widened.

"You heard me right," she informed him. "Want to guess how they got so convinced that I'm insane?"

"Wait, JD's a whitelighter, too, so wouldn't you have just had his powers?" Chris asked confused.

"Nope," she shook her head. "There were five of us that a demon called Sjelmikser mixed around."

Chris grimaced. "Oh."

"In December I had to quit working at The Manor to deal with the guy who had my body," Cassia informed him. "Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough or effective enough. They locked him up here. Two months ago I was leaving my apartment after an argument with my boss when I suddenly found myself here."

"You're Jen!" Chris stared at her stunned. "You're Jen!"

JD chuckled. "He found you out, Cass."

She nodded. "You know Jen, too, though. You worked with her, at Centennial."

Chris frowned. "Not Rose or Jody. David would have noticed if Rose changed and Jody is definitely Jody."

Cassia shook her head. "No, not Rose or Jody," she agreed. "Jen and I had to deal with them from time to time. No, Jen was gone by the time you quit."

"Jelly?" he asked, not as certain this time.

Cassia laughed. "Yeah. I'd forgotten all about that. She didn't want people calling her Alex or Alexis, but she couldn't just tell them to call her Jen. And she was forever introducing herself as J . . . Alex. I'm not quite sure how that turned into Jelly, but I do remember that."

"But Alex is married," Chris protested.

"Yes, and we've got that all figured out," Cassia assured him. "We had to let Josh in on what was going on, so that we got it all right. And we knew magic would be back soon, just not exactly when, so I tried to get them to wait. That's not why I need you help though."

"You need my help?" Chris looked at her confused. Of course, he'd realized she wanted something, but he wasn't sure how he could help a whitelighter.

* * *

Chris opened it and slipped out a piece of paper. He looked it over, his eyes catching on one line and widening as he looked over other lines. He looked up stunned. "Is this real?"

"Real enough," she assured him. "All the papers in there are real. They are official documents. I believe they will come in handy very soon. I had a lot of time on my hands and when I realized what he planned to do, I also realized he would need these."

"But can you do this?" He looked at her confused.

She smiled. "I got permission from the elders. When it comes to one of their own, sometimes they can be reasonable."

Chris chuckled. "I see you have an interesting view of them."

"They wouldn't help me get out of here," she reminded him, waving her hand toward the building. "It doesn't necessarily get them on my good side."

Chris chuckled a little more.

* * *

Cassia felt a hand on her shoulder. Terrified that the glamour wouldn't hold, she turned around, a smile on her face. "Hello, Deary," she said as she looked her little brother in the face. "May I help you?"

Daniel Reynolds' face fell. "I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else."

"Oh, dear," she replied, trying to sound disappointed when in reality she was thrilled to be this close to her brother. "Someone nice I hope."

He nodded. "Someone very nice."

Cassia saw the sadness in her brother's eyes and she wanted so much to hug him. "You're disappointed."

He offered her a weak smile. "Yeah, I've been looking for so long."

"Perhaps she doesn't want to be found," Cassia suggested, feeling terrible for saying it.

"How do you know I'm looking for a woman?" he asked, looking confused.

Cassia had to suppress a giggle. "Well, you approached me not one of the men here."

Daniel blinked and starred at her. "Oh."

She laid a hand on his shoulder. "It might be time to end your search, Deary."

"But Cassia . . ."

"Is that who you are looking for?"

He nodded. "My sister." He sighed. "It's been almost thirty-nine years." He rubbed his eyes, trying to hide a glimmer of a tear.

Cassia led him over to a bench. "Tell me about it. Perhaps that will help."

Daniel sat down on the bench next to her. "My sister, Cassia, was in a horrible accident just before she would have started college many years ago. My other sister, my parents; they moved on, but I couldn't, not entirely. I married, had kids. I thought I had moved on, but then I saw this picture." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet.

Cassia watched for glimpses of family pictures. She recognized her oldest sister, Ashley, in one picture, but all the other pictures flipped by too fast.

Daniel pulled out a folded newspaper article. He handed it to her.

Cassia took it and unfolded it. She found herself looking at a picture. It took her a moment, but she found what had caught her brother's attention. Standing partially hidden behind the person the picture was focused on she saw a person with her face, her body. She looked up at him.

Daniel pointed to that person in the picture. "That's Cassia, my sister. This picture was taken fifteen years ago. Someone who's dead for twenty-four years can't appear in a picture."

"No offence," she said in a whispered voice, "but the person in that picture isn't twenty-four-years-old and certainly not old enough to have graduated twenty-four years prior."

"I know," he agreed. "I thought about that, too. At first I thought she might be a distant relative, but I started looking and I found this picture six years ago." He pulled out another picture.

This one was much clearer. It was plainly a picture of Cassia despite hair that had been cropped off and clothes she would never wear.

"Nine years later," he reminded her. "Same person, same age. That's not normal, but if she didn't age in nine years, what's another twenty-four?"

"It seems a little," she paused before finishing with, "unrealistic." She knew she had to end his search, but she didn't want to.

He shrugged, clearly unconcerned. "I can't explain everything I've learned over the last six years, but I've no doubt that it's my sister in both pictures. I've no doubt that she died. She's not a ghost. And I'm not crazy."

Cassia stared at him. She wasn't sure what her little brother had found, but he seemed awfully sure of himself and the way he worded that, it almost sounded like he really did know what he was talking about. It sounded like he knew about witches, warlocks, whitelighters, and magic, but how was that possible. She had tried to avoid checking up on her family, but she knew Ash, perfect Ashley Nicole was both a doctor and soon to be mother of ten, only one of whom was a daughter. She knew that daughter, seven-year-old Kelsey Kinsley, because yes her sister was apparently that demented to name her daughter with a name so close to her last name, was quite spoiled by her six older brothers and adored by her two younger ones. She knew that Belle's son, Aaron Quinn, would soon be graduating high school. And she knew that Danny's oldest daughter, named Cassia for her, had died before his second daughter, Sophia, had been born.

* * *

Chris: Mom said she hired on a new waitress whose pretty good in kitchen.

Emily: Better off there than waiting on customers.

Chris: Why? What's wrong?

Emily: I just don't like her. Bratty attitude.

* * *

Chris: And this'll work.

Brianna: It should.

Chris: So how do we get in there? And how do we administer it once we do?

Brianna: We break the spell.

Chris: We don't know what the spell is.

Brianna (softly): I think I do.

Chris: What's that?

Brianna: I think I know what spell was used. I've seen something like this before. There should be invisible chains, but that doesn't really matter, because if we find a way to break them . . . where'd you go?

(Somewhere during that, Chris turned invisible, to show that he could)

* * *

"Am I glad to see you," a feminine voice behind Chris announced.

Chris glanced around, trying to see who they were talking to.

There was a chuckle as the voice announced. "I mean you, silly. I've been trying to find a way to get out of here without using magic and I think you might just be my ticket out, Chris."

Chris turned around to find a teenage girl standing behind him. Dirty blonde waves framed her face ending a few inches below her shoulders. There was absolutely nothing familiar about her.

* * *

So that's about it. With the exception of the first set of scenes taking place during "The Demon of Confusion" none of this is official, it's just for fun. Some of it (such as the ages of some of Cassia's nieces and nephews) is contradictory to what I settled on. Kelsey Kinsey changed from being a seven-year-old to a seventeen-year-old high school senior. Aaron Quinn went from being a high school senior to being a college senior. The conversation between Chris and Emily probably happened, just not on screen. Emily barely knows Addiosn, but she can't stand her.

Hope you enjoyed all of that. Now to post the prologue of "Something in the Water" and give you a hint into why Wyatt and Chris are going to wish this day hadn't ended (because this day was easier than the ones to come).


End file.
